Venus, Mektic fall in tight three-set battle at Roland Garros

Michael Venus and Nikola Mektic lost a tight match in the second round of the men’s doubles at Roland Garros, going down 7-6(4) 6-7(4) 6-3 to Robert Galloway from the United States and India’s Yuki Bhambri.

As the scoreline suggests, it was a close, hard fought match on Court 8 in Paris, with little to separate the teams until the final set, and even so, it took over two and a half hours to complete the match.

Venus and Mektic fought back from a 0-3 deficit in the opening set to force a tiebreak.

In it, the Kiwi/ Croatian duo were up 4-2 at the change of ends and they went on to take the set, with Venus clinching it with a big serve that Galloway put into the net.

At 4-4 in the second set, Venus faced three break points at 0-40, but a string of strong serves and sharp net play from Mektic helped them escape unscathed

Again, the set went to a tiebreak and this time it was all square at the change of ends. But Venus went long at 4-4, having served the point and soon after on Bhambri’s serve Galloway carefully placed a volley wide to the left to make it one set all.

Bhambri and Galloway broke serve twice in the deciding set to take a commanding 5-1 lead.

Even though Venus and Mektic managed to get one of the breaks back, Bhambri and Galloway were already too far in front for the Kiwi and Croatian to have a realistic chance of making a comeback.

Venus is back at Roland Garros on Saturday, when he and Erin Routliffe have their second round mixed doubles match against Desirae Krawczyk and Neal Skupski, which will start at 9pm, New Zealand time. 

Lulu Sun will also be in action, as she and Yuan Yue play Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in the second match on Court 7, in round two of the women’s doubles.