David Long/Things
Erin Routliffe is at Wimbleon for the first time through the second round of the women’s doubles.
Erin Routliffe is through to the second round of the women’s doubles at Wimbledon, but Michael Venus only has the mixed doubles left to focus on.
Auckland-born Routliffe won her first-ever Wimbledon match on Thursday when she and her partner Alicja Rosolska defeated Irina-Camelia Begu and Anhelina Kalinina 6-4 6-4.
As the deficit suggests, it was a close battle, but Routliffe and Rosolska always seemed to have something extra, picking up a few service breaks in both sets.
After losing in the first round of their first two grass court tournaments, Routliffe and Rosolska have steadily improved, reaching the final in Bad Homburg last week and then winning their first round at Wimbledon.
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Routliffe says they both feel more comfortable on the surface.
“Every time we switch surfaces, we have to think about how we can play as a team on that surface, as we have never played together on the different surfaces before,” said Routliffe.
“I can definitely see us getting more confident on grass together and figuring out what works and what doesn’t.”
For Venus, there will be no repeat this year of his appearance in the men’s final at Wimbledon in 2018, as he and Tim Puetz of Germany lost a marathon of a match against South African Raven Klaasen and Brazilian Marcelo Melo 4-6 7- 6 (2) 7-5 1-6 7-6 (10).
It was a match in which the momentum changed several times, but in the end it came down to Klaasen and Melo making fewer mistakes in the tiebreaks.
“They are very experienced, they know how to play on grass,” Venus said.
“Their matches are a good fit, they have had very good results here and we knew it was going to be a tough game.
“But we gave ourselves chances or put ourselves in positions and in some of those chances we didn’t play well enough and put the balls where we needed to be.
“So that’s up to us and we have to get better and take that next time.”
Although Venus is out of men’s doubles, he has a first round match in mixed doubles where he will play Rosolska against Venus Williams and Jamie Murray.
“Every time you play at Wimbledon it’s exciting and when you play Venus Williams, who has won how many grand slams? With Jamie going to have tremendous support, it should be a fun game and I’m looking forward to Item.”