Venus and Daniell into doubles semis

New Zealand tennis doubles specialists Michael Venus and Marcus Daniell are now officially hunting for Olympic medals.

Venus and Daniell won an exciting quarter-final against the third-seeded Colombians Juan-Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah 6-3, 3-6, 10-7 to reach the business end of the men’s doubles tournament.

“It’s just a dream,” Daniell said afterwards. “In our next two matches we’re going to be playing for medals. I’m feeling a little overwhelmed.”

He said it was an extremely tight match against the experienced Colombians. “There were a few Colombian supporters and they were making some noise.  It started to get fiery – a great atmosphere, just what you want.”

Venus said the Colombians, both multiple Grand Slam winners and both ranked in the top 10 in the world, are great players. “We knew it would be tough, but also that we would get opportunities. We took them and did a really good job today.”

The New Zealanders, both senior members of the world doubles tour, play together surprisingly infrequently. But they have combined well in Tokyo.

In the end the service power of the New Zealanders was just enough to get them home in the 1h 33min match.

In the semi-finals, Venus and Daniell run into Croatians Marin Cilic and Ivan Dodig.