Michael Venus

EVENT: Tennis - Men's Double

Michael Venus helped create history at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 when he and Marcus Daniell won the bronze medal in the men's doubles tennis. It was New Zealand's first Olympic tennis medal since Anthony Wilding won the bronze medal in the singles at Stockholm in 1912.

In the first round in Tokyo, the unseeded New Zealanders beat Belarusians Yegor Gerasimov and Ilya Ivanshka 6-3, 7-6, squeezing through the second set tiebreak 8-6. Next up they had some good fortune when the eighth-seeded Dutch pair of Wesley Koolhof and Jean-Julien Rojer defaulted to them after returning a positive Covid test.

Into the quarter-finals, Venus and Daniell beat Juan Cabal and Robert Farah of Colombia, the third seeds, 6-3, 3-6, 10-7.

Croatians Marin Cilic and Ivan Dodig were far too good in the semi-final, winning 6-2, 6-2. The New Zealanders were off form and were disappointed with their performance.

But they bounced back superbly in the bronze medal play-off and dispatched Americans Austin Krajicek and Tennys Sandgren 7-6, 6-2 in 108 minutes. The New Zealanders gelled so well that tennis fans wondered why they had not played together more often on the pro tour.

Venus, then aged 33, went into the Tokyo event with a world ranking of 11, but Daniell, then aged 31, had run into leaner times and was ranked 50th.

It was the second Olympic Games for Venus and Daniell, who lost a heartbreakingly close first round match at Rio de Janeiro in 2016. They were beaten by the seventh-seeded Canadian pairing of Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil 4-6, 6-3, 7-6, losing the third set tiebreak 8-6.

Venus, born in Auckland in 1987, turned professional in 2009 after a stint in the American tennis system. The Venus family moved to the United States, and Michael won the boys 18s national clay courts title in 2006. He played college tennis at the University of Texas in 2006 and at Louisiana State University in 2008-09. He was named Southeastern Conference Player of the Year and was an All-American in singles and doubles as a senior. Venus represented the United States team in the International University Challenge of Tennis in Poitiers, France in 2009.

In 2010 Venus switched nationalities and became eligible to represent the country of his berth. He was immediately included in the Davis Cup team.

After some success in Futures events, he lifted his world singles ranking to a career high of 274 in 2011. He tried for several years to make his way in singles, with mixed results. Venus eventually focused on doubles and has forged a very successful career, reaching a career high world ranking of No 6. In Major events, he has also produced some excellent mixed doubles results.

Venus has reached two doubles finals in Majors, winning one, and has been runner-up in the mixed doubles in three Majors. In four year-end ATP Championships appearances, his best performance has been with South African Raven Klaasen in 2019 when they were runners-up to Frenchmen Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut. Venus has won one Masters 1000 title and been runner-up in four others and reached 44 ATP doubles finals from 2015-24, winning 22 of them.

He had a long and successful Davis Cup career, playing in 20 ties from 2010-21. In 21 singles matches, he won 10, and in doubles he won six of 11.

Besides his Olympic bronze medal, the highlight of Venus' career has probably been winning the French Open doubles with American Ryan Harrison in 2017. Another New Zealander, Onny Parun, had teamed with Australian Dick Crealy to win the same title in 1974.

In 2018 Venus and Klaasen reached the Wimbledon men's doubles final, losing to Americans Mike Bryan and Jack Sock 6-3, 6-7, 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 in a classic encounter. He was a semi-finalist the same year in the mixed doubles with Katarina Srebotnik.

Venus and Chan Hao-ching were runners-up in the US Open mixed doubles in 2017 and 2019. In 2019, they were seeded No 1, the first time a New Zealand player had been top seed in a Grand Slam event since before World War I.

Venus reached another Major mixed doubles final in 2023 when he and Canadian Bianca Andreescu lost to Miyu Kato and Tim Pütz in a close match.

Venus gained a mention in the 2017 Halberg Awards when his French Open doubles title with Harrison was named as one of New Zealand's favourite sporting moments of the year.