Michael Venus

Michael Venus (born 16 October 1987) is a New Zealand professional tennis player. He has a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 6, achieved on 29 August 2022. Venus won the 2017 French Open men's doubles partnering Ryan Harrison, and followed with a runner-up finish in the 2017 US Open mixed doubles partnering Chan Hao-ching. Venus and Harrison qualified for the year-end championships ATP Finals, where they reached the semifinals.

In 2018 Venus made the men's doubles final at Wimbledon with Raven Klaasen, losing to Mike Bryan and Jack Sock, and was a semifinalist in the mixed doubles there as well with Katarina Srebotnik. He and Klaasen qualified for the ATP Finals, but won only one round-robin match. They also qualified in 2019, finishing runners-up. In the meantime Venus and Chan Hao-ching again finished runners-up in the US Open mixed doubles. Venus and John Peers qualified for the 2020 ATP Finals, but lost close contests in all three of their round-robin matches.

Venus won a bronze medal in the men's doubles at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics alongside Marcus Daniell.

Early years

Venus's family moved to the United States, where he won the Boys’ 18 National Clay Courts in 2006. His idols were Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras. He vacillated between going to college or turning professional and trying the senior tour, but decided to go for the College Conference. Having represented the U.S. through college, he switched nationalities in June 2010 to the country of his birth, and began playing for the New Zealand Davis Cup team.

College years to professional career

Venus transferred to Louisiana State University from the University of Texas after his freshman year and sat out the 2006–2007 season, following NCAA guidelines. In his first year at LSU, Venus became the first LSU player to win the ITA Men's All-American Championship at the national tournament in Tulsa, Oklahoma in January 2008. He is one of only two Louisianan college players to finish in the top ten of the Campbell's ITA College Tennis Rankings in both singles and doubles in the same year (No. 7 in singles and No. 4 in doubles, respectively), which he accomplished in his final season in 2008–2009. He was a representative of the United States team in the BNP Paribas International University Challenge of Tennis in Poitiers, France in December 2009.

2007

Venus finished the season winning the USA F26 Futures in doubles, partnering with Danny Bryan, losing only in the final of Thailand F3 Futures thus peaking at 866 in singles on the ATP world tour.

2008

Despite playing the final of Baton Rouge Challenger with partner Ryan Harrison, due to his singles performance Venus closed the year at the 1752nd position on the South African Airways ATP rankings.

2009

In July Venus clinched the title of USA F17 Futures beating Vasek Pospisil in the final. He reached the doubles final of the USA F19 Futures in August teaming with Colt Gaston losing in two straight sets. At the end of the month, Venus earned a wild card to the qualifying draw of the US Open in which he advanced to the second round overcoming Uruguay's Marcel Felder in two sets but failing to qualify by losing to Giovanni Lapentti of Ecuador. In October The Venus-Harrison pair won the USA F24 Futures against fellow Kudla-Sarmiento and in November playing with Gaston they lost in the championship match in the USA F27 Futures against the Armenian-Russian duo Martirosyan-Sitak. He reached his career year-end high of 587.

2010: Top 350 in singles

Venus won another futures the USA F13 Futures tournament but lost in his first ever challenger series final in Qarshi against Blaž Kavčič in two tie-breaker sets. In the same year he won his first Davis Cup match representing New Zealand. He advanced to 328 at year-end.

2017: French Open doubles champion, US Open mixed-doubles finalist, ATP Tour Finals semifinalist

The standout year in Venus's career began when he teamed up with Ryan Harrison to play doubles together for the first time in several years. Not only did they win titles at the French Open and in Estoril but they also qualified for the end of season 2017 ATP World Tour Finals, where they lost in the semifinals. At the end of the year Venus was ranked number 15 in the world, with Harrison one place below.

Venus's mixed doubles campaigns at Grand Slam events also improved through the year, losing in the first round in Melbourne, in the second in Paris, and in the third at Wimbledon, before going all the way to the final in New York.

2018: Wimbledon doubles finalist and mixed-doubles semifinalist

Venus began the new year in Brisbane, where he teamed up with Marcelo Demoliner to win the first round but lose the second. Back to his home event in Auckland, Venus was given a wildcard into the singles, but was unfortunate enough to draw world No. 20 (and eventual winner) Roberto Bautista Agut in the first round, being beaten 6–2, 6–1. In the doubles, he and new partner Raven Klaasen won their first two matches before being beaten 7–6⁽⁷⁾, 7–6⁽⁶⁾ in their semi-final by Max Mirnyi and Philipp Oswald.

Seeded 8th in the Australian Open, Venus and Klaasen lost in the first round a titanic first set tie-break 14–16, and a more straightforward one in the second set, to go down 7–6⁽¹⁴⁾, 7–6⁽⁴⁾ to Scott Lipsky and David Marrero. Venus and Chan won their first mixed doubles match comfortably, but were well-beaten in the second round by eventual semifinalists, Marcelo Demoliner and María José Martínez Sánchez.

The first round of the Asia/Pacific Group I Davis Cup took place in Tianjin, China, at the start of February. Venus played the second singles rubber for New Zealand after Rubin Statham had won the first, but he lost to Zhang Ze after winning the first set. New Zealand lost the doubles, and then the first reverse singles, so the dead fifth rubber was not played. His next ATP tournament was in Rotterdam, where he and Klaasen lost in the first round.

They then went to Marseille, where they won the Open 13 Provence. It was special for Venus on two counts – he was winning the tournament for the second time, having been successful with Mate Pavić in 2016, and it was also the first time that two New Zealanders had contested an ATP World Tour doubles final on opposite sides of the net, the runners-up being Marcus Daniell (New Zealand) and Dominic Inglot. This had previously happened only in one Challenger (Daniell and Rubin Statham in Adelaide in 2014) and several ITF Futures events. A week later they were in Dubai, where they lost in the second round.

Next stop on tour was the first Masters 1000 tournament for the year, in Indian Wells. Venus and Klaasen beat Colombians Juan Sebastián Cabal and Robert Farah in the first round, but were then well-beaten by eighth seeds Ivan Dodig and Rajeev Ram. Ram and Klaasen had combined to win the tournament the previous year, but Dodig and Ram went out in the next round to the eventual champions, John Isner and Jack Sock. Venus and Klaasen had immediate revenge over Dodig and Ram, beating them in the first round at Miami, before beating Isner and Donald Young in the second round. They lost a titanic quarter-final battle to the Bryan brothers, going down 8–10 in the match tie-break.

Venus and Klaasen started the European clay-court season at the Monte-Carlo Masters. After an easy win in the first round, and a walkover in the second, they lost 7–6⁽⁸⁾, 6–3 to Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini in the quarterfinals. Looking to defend the title he had won at Estoril the previous year, Venus and Klaasen were beaten in the first round. In Madrid they made it through to the quarterfinals, losing to Nikola Mektić and Alexander Peya, while in Rome they lost in the second round to Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares.

Moving on to Roland-Garros to defend his title in the French Open, Venus and Klaasen were seeded tenth, and disposed of French teams in the first two rounds, before meeting eighth seeds Mektic and Peya in the third round. The higher-ranked pair were again their nemesis, but the win was not without a struggle, as the final score of 7–6⁽²⁾, 7–6⁽⁴⁾ would indicate. Venus and Chan Hao-ching teamed up again for the mixed doubles, but were well-beaten in the first round by Matwé Middelkoop and