Skupski/Venus clinch Queen's crown
pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/neal-skupski/sl22/overview'Neal Skupski/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/michael-venus/v576/overview'Michael Venus/a captured their first title as a team on Sunday at the cinch Championships, where they clawed past singles stars a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/taylor-fritz/fb98/overview'Taylor Fritz/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/karen-khachanov/ke29/overview'Karen Khachanov/a 4-6, 7-6(5), 10-8./p
pThe seventh seeds played fearlessly in the crucial moments, closing the net and striking heavy returns. Skupski and Venus won 88 per cent (37/42) of their first-serve points and raised their level in the Match Tie-break to triumph in London after 77 minutes./p
p"It has been very special," Skupski said. "First time winning at Queen's, first time winning with Mike. We went to University together and we go back a long way. We have never been able to play on Tour much together, so this was nice to play with him."/p
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pThe Briton and Kiwi, who were teaming in just their third tour-level event together, were impressive throughout their run at the ATP 500. They defeated second seeds a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/rajeev-ram/r548/overview'Rajeev Ram/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/joe-salisbury/so70/overview'Joe Salisbury/a in the quarter-finals and downed 2023 champs a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/ivan-dodig/d646/overview'Ivan Dodig/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/austin-krajicek/ka00/overview'Austin Krajicek/a in the last four, not dropping a set in either match./p
pSkupski, 34, is the first Briton to win the doubles title at Queen’s since a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/andy-murray/mc10/overview'Andy Murray/a won with a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/feliciano-lopez/l397/overview'Feliciano Lopez/a in 2019. Venus, 36, is the first player from New Zealand to win the title in the Open Era (since 1968)./p
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pFritz and Khachanov were teaming for the first time. Fritz also lost in the final at Queen’s last year. Khachanov won his only tour-level doubles title in 2023 at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Madrid with a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/andrey-rublev/re44/overview'Andrey Rublev/a./p
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