India’s top-ranked doubles player Yuki Bhambri will forge a new partnership with Grand Slam winner Michael Venus ‘for the foreseeable future’ on the ATP doubles circuit.
Bhambri, ranked No. 35 in the world currently, has been playing with American Robert Galloway since April and their pair reached the third round of the Wimbledon men’s doubles event this week. The Indo-American pair went down in a thrilling three-set battle against fourth seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos in a deciding set tiebreak.
“It was a good run, but obviously disappointed in losing such a close match in the end. I think we didn’t start off well in the tie-break and they sort of ran away with the first couple of points, which always makes it difficult to then try and come back,” Bhambri told Indian Tennis Daily exclusively from London. “I think overall I felt we were the better team and deserved to win, but obviously you have to play well right till the end and we didn’t have a good tie-break.”
Bhambri, who is projected to climb into the top 30 in the rankings next week, will now team up with Michael Venus, the former French Open doubles champion and current world No. 20. The duo will begin their partnership at the Citi DC Open in Washington later this month.
37-year-old Venus, who hails from New Zealand, won the 2017 French Open men’s doubles partnering Ryan Harrison. He also reached the 2018 men’s doubles final at Wimbledon with Raven Klaasen and the 2017 and 2019 US Open mixed doubles finals with Chan Hao-ching.
Venus, a former world No. 6, has also won a bronze medal in the men’s doubles at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics alongside Marcus Daniell.
“My next tournament is with Michael Venus in Washington. We will be playing together for the foreseeable future. Definitely in the US summer and hopefully continue past that as well,” Bhambri said.
“We’ve been friends for over a decade and have played together a bunch of times in the past but never had a proper partnership and the timing this time works as we are both ranked high enough to play the Masters & Slams together. He’s got a very powerful serve & forehand and is also a Grand Slam champion so I’m hoping I can learn from his experience,” the Indian concluded.