Michael Venus held serve comfortably to start the match when he and Jamie Murray played seventh seeds Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the second round of the Paris Masters, and things looked even better when they broke Gonzalez to love. It started when Roger-Vasselin was forced to hit an overhead backhand volley into the net, and continued with a fabulous forehand return into the tramlines from Venus. An incredible 14 shot rally ended with Venus hitting a huge forehand to force Gonzalez’ attempted volley into the net, and the great short rally which followed saw Venus take the honours again, this time with a beautiful cross-court backhand volley.
Murray held to love, and Roger-Vasselin finished by acing Venus out wide after being forced to end another fantastic rally with a forehand volley which went wide. The break back came when Venus lost the next game with his second double fault, and Gonzalez held to love to level the scores. Murray’s game started with another fantastic rally, Roger-Vasselin ending it when forced to hit a backhand volley into the net. Murray then hit a beautiful forehand winner through the middle of the court before being forced into a backhand error, but he finished by acing both Roger-Vasselin and Gonzalez.
Roger-Vasselin held to love before Venus won his opening point with an overhead volley. That was the only success he had, as Gonzalez won the next point with a beautiful cross-court forehand volley before Murray hit a forehand into the net to end another great rally. A double fault gave away break points, and Roger-Vasselin converted the first with a forehand volley that he smacked straight at Venus. That left Gonzalez to serve out the set, but the drama wasn’t over yet. A double fault created break points for Venus and Murray, but Venus was forced into an error before Gonzalez smashed away a volley to take them to deuce, and a set point. It took Gonzalez three attempts to get his first serve in play, but the wait was worthwhile when Roger-Vasselin ended the set after 38 minutes with an overhead backhand volley.
The second set started with Murray being taken to deuce when he was forced into a forehand error, but Roger-Vasselin’s forehand return of the deciding point went over the baseline. The shot of the match came when Roger-Vasselin served next, Venus being forced into what became a wonderful forehand drop volley that landed just inside the baseline. The Frenchman still held serve, but Venus got broken for the third time in a row – and that’s not something you could say very often. Gonzalez hit a fantastic cross-court forehand winner to take the fourth point, and Roger-Vasselin ended the game with a fabulous forehand return down the tramlines.
The next four games went by without too much fuss, the only real highlights being beautiful backhand volleys from Venus in both Murray’s and his own next games. There was another incredible rally when Gonzalez served, and Venus won this with another fabulous volley, this time a forehand which flew off Roger-Vasselin’s racquet. Gonzalez continued on to win his remaining points, and that left Murray serving to stay in the match. He started with a double fault, and a backhand volley into the net from Venus gave away two match points. One chance was all Gonzalez needed, his winning forehand volley securing the victory after an hour and 15 minutes. The final score was 6-4, 6-3.