Venus and Puetz lose epic final in Halle
Michael Venus and his German partner Tim Puetz have come agonizingly close to winning their fifth ATP title together. The third seeds have lost the ATP 500 doubles final in Halle in Germany 6-4 6-7 (5) 14-12 to top seeds Spaniard Marcelo Granollers and Argentina Horacio Zeballos.
The 1 hour 53-minute match could have gone either way with Venus and Puetz having two match points in the deciding match tie break, but not on their own serve.
There was very little in it with just the one break of serve in the match and Granollers and Zeballos winning 78 points to Venus and Puetz's 74.
Venus and Puetz now head to London to prepare for Wimbledon on the back of two ATP Final defeats in Stuttgart and Halle. But they will take plenty of confidence with their performance at the German grass court tournaments.
Venus will also be back in the top 10 (9) in the individual doubles rankings this week, just one place off his career high while Puetz is 14th. Venus and Puetz are 10th in the race to qualify for the ATP Finals in Turin at the end of the season with the top eight ranked pairs in November getting to play at the lucrative tournament.
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