Fresh from lifting the Citi Open (ATP 500) doubles crown in Washington DC on Sunday night, Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus have risen to 2nd place in the race to reach the end of year ATP doubles finals. Meanwhile, Raven has seen his own ATP doubles ranking reach a career high, 7th position.
The SA/Kiwi duo have now won two ATP 500 events this year – having also triumphed at the Halle Open in June.
However the Washington triumph was especially sweet considering the calibre of opponents Raven and Michael saw off last week – including Andy and Jamie Murray, 2nd seeds, Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, and French Open doubles champions, Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies.
“When the draw first came out, everybody was looking at that like, ‘Man, there's no easy way out through this thing.’ You had to be ready from day one,” said Klaasen. “For us, every day felt like a final, pretty much.
”We snuck through a couple of Match Tie-breaks this week… If you had asked me what the chances were of us sitting here today at the beginning of the week, it would have been a stretch to imagine given the strength of the field.”
Quotes: Courtesy of the ATP tour website.