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New York - South Africa’s Raven Klaasen and his New Zealand doubles partner Michael Venus made an unexpected exit from the US Open in the second round on Friday.
The No 8 seeds joined a number of men’s doubles seeds to exit the tournament in the opening week when they lost 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) to the unseeded pairing of Maximo Gonzalez (Argentina) and Nicolas Jarry (Chile).
The South African/Kiwi pair were looking out of sorts in the opening set with a string of unforced errors and Venus losing his serve twice.
In the second set, Gonzalez and Jarry broke the Klaasen serve in the opening game and although Klaasen and Venus broke back in the tenth game, it was a situation of a “little too late”.
In that 10th game there were signs of brilliance from Klaasen and Venus and they seemed to start playing the tennis that had got them to the Wimbledon final in July but their momentum was halted by a rain delay in the 11th game.
The improved form was short-lived as Gonzalez and Jarry regrouped and sealed the win.
