Venus and Puetz stay in hunt for place in Turin

Michael Venus and his German partner Tim Puetz have kept their hopes of qualifying for the ATP Tour Finals in Turin alive.

The 4^th seeds at the Paris Masters have dug deep to beat French veterans Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-2, 3-6, 10-8 in an hour and 24 minutes in their second round encounter at Bercy.

The win takes Venus and Puetz into the quarter-finals. They remain 9^th in the race to qualify for the elite eight-team field for Turin after the pair who are just ahead of them Croatian Ivan Dodig and American Austin Krajicek also won today.

Venus and Puetz will need to beat the German pair of Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies in the quarter-finals if they are to continue their quest to qualify for the lucrative season finale.