It’s incredibly disappointing and frustrating that TennisTV, the official broadcast arm of the ATP Tour, doesn’t stream so many courts and matches at the European tournaments, especially when the streams that are available use their feeds. From a New Zealand perspective it’s even worse, because the doubles coverage is always the first to be set aside, and it came to its nadir in Geneva when even the final wasn’t broadcast.
That meant finding an alternative source, and the only one that’s guaranteed to be available is of a much lower quality than TennisTV, and can’t be replayed, so there’s no way of confirming what has actually happened if there is more than one way that a point might have ended. For that reason, although I’m reasonably sure that I’ve got just about all of it correct, don’t take everything in this report as gospel!
Losing several months to injury hasn’t done Michael Venus any favours, and the final in Geneva was his first since he and Nikola Mektić got to the ultimate round at Queen’s Club last June. He had previously won the title in 2021 with John Peers and in 2023 with Jamie Murray, but he and Yuki Bhambri were looking for their first title together since a Chennai Challenger in 2014. They faced Romain Arneodo from Monaco and Australian Marc Polmans who, although he has won eleven Challenger titles, was still looking for his first trophy on the main tour.
Venus started with a double fault, but won the next three points before Polmans hit a beautiful inside-out forehand winner into the corner. His next return of serve was good enough to force Venus into a backhand error to take them to deuce, but he could only push his forehand return of the deciding point into the net. Arneodo held comfortably next up, but the highlight of that game was the incredible rally on the second point, which lasted for eleven shots before Arneodo finished it with a fabulous backhand winner down the tramlines.
Bhambri had a routine hold as well before hitting a terrific inside-out forehand return off Polmans. A great return from Venus forced Arneodo into an error, and the latter then finished a great rally by hitting a backhand lob over the baseline. That gave the seeded pair a coupe of break points and, although Polmans aced Venus down the middle to save the first, he double faulted to lose the second.
There weren’t any more games in the set that got even close to a break point, so it was a case of just picking out the few highlights. There were aces from Venus and Arneodo before the latter hit a beautiful cross-court forehand return off Bhambri, but the most notable point in what was left came when Venus was serving for the set. He held to love to wrap it up after 32 minutes, with the second point being a fantastic 14 shot rally that ended when Bhambri forced Polmans to hit a backhand volley into the net.
Polmans and Venus held safely to start the second set before the Australian won his partner’s second point with a fabulous overhead backhand volley into the right-hand tramline. He ended the fantastic rally on the next point as well, with a stunning forehand winner that also went down the right-hand side of the court, and two forced errors from Venus extended the run of held games to eight.
Two forehands from Bhambri that went over the baseline dropped him back to deuce, and he lost the great rally with Polmans on the deciding point when he was forced to send another forehand volley long. He took Polmans to deuce in turn with a fabulous backhand return down the left-hand side before forcing Arneodo to hit a forehand volley into the net to lose the deciding point and give the break straight back.
Bhambri kept up the pressure when Venus served, ending the incredible 19 shot rally of the match with a terrific cross-court forehand winner. Venus held to love, as did Arneodo, but Bhambri got taken to deuce again when Arneodo hit a beautiful backhand winner through the middle of the court. This time the deciding point went to the serving team, with Polmans being forced to lob a backhand over the baseline.
He started his own game with a beautiful cross-court backhand winner, but an overhit forehand volley from Arneodo gave away a break point. That was saved when Bhambri hit his forehand return too far, and a service winner out wide to Bhambri took care of the deciding point. Venus also had to save a break point after Bhambri smashed an easy volley into the net, and did so with an unreturnable serve to Polmans. The Australian safely returned the deciding point, but was then forced to lob a backhand over the baseline.
Arneodo had a comfortable hold before hitting a beautiful cross-court overhead volley to end a great rally when Bhambri served, but a couple of winning volleys from Venus ensured that his partner was able to force a tie-break. The first mini-break was one of those points where I couldn’t clearly see what happened, with Arneodo either hitting a winning forehand return down the tramlines off Venus or forcing Bhambri into a backhand error.
There was no about the second break, though, because that came from a double fault by Bhambri on the last point before they changed ends. A backhand volley won Bhambri’s second point after they swapped around. A winning forehand volley from Arneodo gave his team four set points, and Polmans aced Venus out wide to wrap up the set after exactly an hour.
The match tie-break also had two lost serves in the first set of six points, but this time there was one from each team. Bhambri hit a fabulous backhand winner down the tramlines off Arneodo, only to have the latter smash away a volley to win the Indian’s first serve. There was a net cord in the middle of a short rally when Venus served again, but it had no effect by the time Bhambri finished the exchange with a fabulous backhand winner through the middle of the court.
A cross-court forehand volley by Venus off Arneodo gave the third seeds another mini-break, but the advantage lasted just two points. Polmans hit a beautiful backhand return down the tramlines off Bhambri on the last point before they changed ends for the second time, and that levelled the scores again.
The next three points went with serve, but a great return from Polmans forced Venus to hit a backhand into the net and concede two Championship points. It was the latter to the fore on the first of those, his cross-court backhand winner ending the match after an hour and 52 minutes. The final score was 3-6, 7-6 (2), 10-7.