
A semifinal loss for the New Zealand duo of Erin Routliffe and Michael Venus in the Mixed Doubles of the Australian Open.
The second seeded pair were beaten by Australian wildcards Olivia Gadecki and John Peers 6-4 6-4 on Margaret Court Arena in cool and blustery condition with a crowd supporting both sides.
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There were only a couple of stray points in each set which cost Routliffe and Venus, who reached the same stage at Wimbledon last year as well.
Thirty-seven-year-old Venus was broken in the ninth game on the first set after a long and hard-hit rally as a reaction volley was hit into the net by Routliffe.
In the second set Peers again stepped up for the Australians and dominated where he could.
World No 2 Routliffe dropped her serve in the third game as Peers put on the pressure with a deep groundstroke at her feet from then on games went with serve.
Peers eventually served out the match with an ace down the middle of the forehand side to his old teammate Venus to wrap up the match.
Routliffe and Canadian Gaby Dabrowski will play their women's doubles semifinal on Frday against the unorthodox third seed pairing of Su-Wei Hsieh (Taipei) and Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia).