Former Tiger Michael Venus becomes first Tiger to win a Grand Slam Title
PARIS – Former Tiger Michael Venus became the first Grand Slam winner in LSU tennis history as he and partner Ryan Harrison defeated Santiago Gonzalez and Donald Young in three sets, 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 6-3, to win the French Open Doubles title Saturday evening on the Philippe-Chatrier Court at the Stade Roland Garros.
The win marked the duo's first Major title together and Venus' seventh career doubles title, his second of the year.
With the win, Venus became the fifth New Zealander to win a Grand Slam doubles title and first person to claim a Grand Slam tennis title for New Zealand since 1979 when Onny Parun won the doubles title. He is
The duo entered the French Open unseeded and used six straight three set wins to take the title.
To lead off the first set, Venus and Harrison forced a tiebreaker and eventually took the set 7-6(5).
After taking the first set, Venus and Harrison tied the second at 3-3 and entered the tiebreaker, but the duo was unable to hang on to the lead and fell 7-6(4).
Venus and Harrison started the final set with the lead and pulled away to a 4-2 advantage before secure the set at 6-3 to earn the crown.
The match lasted two hours and 14 minutes.
The former Tiger is currently ranked 39th in the ATP rankings. He marks the first Tiger to advance past the round of 16 since Jeff Brown reached the round of 16 in the U.S. Open, the Australian Open and Wimbledon between 1990 and 1991.
Harrison is originally from Shreveport, Louisiana and won his first ATP singles title earlier in 2017.
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