Venus and Puetz recieve a walkover into Australian Open doubles quarter finals

6^th seeds New Zealand’s Michael Venus and his German partner Tim Puetz are through to the quarter finals of the men’s doubles at the Australian Open in Melbourne.

 They’ve received a walkover win over Australian wildcards Jason Kubler and Chris O’Connell after O’Connell injured his hip during his third-round singles loss on Saturday and had to withdraw.

Venus and Puetz will face another Aussie wildcard pair, the high-profile Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis who upset the top seeds Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic to reach the third round.

They have beaten 15^th seeds Ariel Behar from Uruguay and Ecuador’s Gonzalo Escobar in three sets to set up a showdown with Venus and Puetz on Tuesday.

Venus will tomorrow team up with fellow Kiwi Erin Routliffe for their second round mixed doubles match against Puetz and Alexa Guarachi, a former partner of Routliffe’s.

Venus and Puetz have achieved some fantastic results since forming a combination after the French Open and ended 2021 by winning the Paris Masters 1000 title together. They are both in the top 20 in the ATP doubles rankings with Venus 15^th and Puetz 18^th and they can expect to climb higher following a run to the quarter finals at least.