Tennis: Kiwi tennis player’s agonising race to see birth of first child

Doubles ace Michael Venus had just begun a long flight to his London home when he learnt his fiancée Sally had gone into labour, the Kiwi tennis star revealed.

Having boarded the first available flight after losing a tough quarter-final at the Shanghai Masters, new dad Venus received a text from Sally thanks to the on-board wifi.

“Three hours into the flight Sally texted me to say her waters had broke so she was on the way to the hospital and as soon as I landed I took an Uber to the hospital and I guess lucky for me and not for Sally, her labour was 26 hours so I still had plenty of time,” Venus said.

A week later the world number 12 had another reason to celebrate.

After spending time with his fiancée and newborn daughter Lila Grace, Venus arrived in Basel for an ATP 500 tournament to find out he’s qualified for the ATP World Tour Finals in London next month.

Venus and his South African partner Raven Klaasen booked their place in the elite eight man field for London when Finn Henri Kontinen and Aussie John Peers lost their first round match this morning in Vienna.

With only this week’s tournaments in Basel and Vienna and next week’s Paris Masters to come, they can’t finish outside the top eight teams for the lucrative year end championships.

“After playing there last year that was when Raven and I first spoke about playing this year, that was our main goal to try to be in London at the end of the year so to achieve that it’s great. But we have a couple more tournaments to try to get ready for it,” Venus said.

It’s a remarkable achievement for the 31-year-old Kiwi who won the French Open last year with Ryan Harrison, qualified for the year end championships winning their three round robin matches before losing in the semifinals. The challenge was always going to be backing it up in 2019 with a new partner and Venus and Klaasen have done that in style.

They’ve won one tournament together, in Marseille in February but finished runners up at Wimbledon, and s-Hertogenbosch on grass, the Toronto Masters and the Japan Open in Tokyo. They have amassed more than 4000 points and are effectively sixth in the race to London.

Venus admitted it was an agonising decision to play the Asian swing in Tokyo and Shanghai earlier this month with Sally due on semifinals day in Shanghai.

“It was something we spoke about for quite a while and one of those things where you want to be there but at the same time we weren’t sure when she was going to come. So it would have been tough to sit at home for four weeks potentially and where we were in the race to London it added another spanner to the decision so I am just glad all things worked out perfectly for us there,” Venus said.

After a week at home Venus flew to Switzerland for the ATP 500 tournament in Basel where he and Klaasen are the top seeds. He’s looking forward to a bit more sleep this week but ready to focus on his tennis again, safe in the knowledge he’s now confirmed in the London finale.

“We feel like we are playing well and are clicking but in saying that every week’s different and we need to keep working hard and staying on top of things. It’s a new week so it’s great to be seeded one but as soon as you step on court and play those points rankings are out the window and you have to take care with what you are doing. We need to get ready for the first match and go from there.”

Venus and Klaasen play wildcards Marc-Andrea Huesler of Switzerland and Dutchman Sem Verbeek in the first round.

They have this week and next week’s Paris Masters to tune up for London where Venus feels they will have a genuine chance of doing well after his experience last year with Harrison.

“Any tournament you go to you can be relaxed and feel comfortable the better you are going to play so the fact I have been there before and know the surroundings is a positive and to have fond memories of playing well there is great,” Venus said.

The other teams confirmed for London are Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic, Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares, Mike Bryan and Jack Sock and Nikola Mektic and Alexander Peya with one team to be added.