The first round doubles match at the Paris Masters started well for Michael Venus and Jamie Murray when the former held serve comfortably, despite a double fault, and it got better in the second game when they broke the serve of Francisco Cerundolo. Murray started that game with a beautiful inside-out forehand return, and Venus hit a beautiful cross-court backhand volley before Cerundolo hit a forehand into the net to drop back to deuce. Venus took the deciding point, but he had nothing to do as Cerundolo double faulted. Murray also ended up at deuce after two volleys into the net from Venus, but the New Zealander redeemed himself with an inside-out forehand volley to win the deciding point. Tomas Martin Etcheverry was the last of the four to serve, and the only point that he lost was to a fabulous cross-court winner from Venus to end a terrific rally.
The rest of that service rotation went with serve, the highlight being a wonderful backhand lob from Murray off Cerundolo, which would have been a forced error if it hadn’t landed just inside the baseline. Etcheverry then had to save a break point after his partner had been forced to hit a backhand volley into the net, which gave Venus and Murray two set points. Venus was forced into a return error to get them to deuce, and an unreal seven shot rally on the deciding point ended with a nice cross-court forehand volley from Cerundolo. The only point Venus lost when serving out was his first opportunity to finish the set, hitting a forehand into the net, but that was where Cerundolo’s backhand return of the next serve went as well. The set had taken 35 minutes.
Cerundolo and Venus both had comfortable holds to start the second set, but their partners both had to get through a deuce before completing their games, with the standout shot amongst those 14 points being a fabulous inside-out forehand return by Murray off Etcheverry. Games continued to go with serve, and it wasn’t until Cerundolo stepped up for the third time that there was anything worth writing about. The best rally of the match came on the second point, and it went for 16 shots before Venus swatted away a fabulous cross-court backhand volley. A cross-court backhand lob from Cerundolo which went too far took them to another deuce, but Murray couldn’t keep his return of the deciding point in court. Venus had three great service winners in the next game, split only by a beautiful inside-out backhand return from Cerundolo, but, for some reason, umpire Aline Rocha gave the first and last of those as aces.
Etcheverry and Murray held comfortably as well, with Cerundolo again in the action in the last game when he hit a fabulous forehand return down the tramlines. A forehand volley from Etcheverry got his team off to a good start in the tie-break, and it got even better when Venus double faulted to lose his first point. That mini-break lasted only until Etcheverry was forced to hit a backhand volley into the net to lose his second point. Two poor forehands from him then allowed Murray to win both of his serves, but another forehand into the net from Etcheverry cost his partner a mini-break. It got worse when Venus hit a fabulous backhand stop volley to win Cerundolo’s second point and give his team three match points. Venus lost the first of them when he ended a great rally with a forehand that hit the net cord and bounced back. The second, though, sat up for Murray almost in slow motion, and he smashed away the winning volley to end the match after an hour and 33 minutes. The final score was 6-3, 7-6 (4).