London, UK, 19 November 2020 | Leigh Rogers

Missed opportunities will haunt Australia’s John Peers and New Zealand’s Michael Venus after losing their second round-robin match at this week’s ATP Finals in London.

Seventh seeds Jurgen Melzer of Austria and Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin recorded a 2-6 7-6(4) [12-10] victory.

Peers and Venus had a match point in the second set and four more in the deciding match tiebreak, but could not close out victory.

The statistics demonstrate how well the sixth-seeded Australian and New Zealand pair played – they did not face a break point in the 90-minute battle and only lost 16 points on serve. But it wasn’t enough in the end.

🎾 Match point saved in the second set
🎾 Four match points saved in the Match Tie-break@jojomelzer & @ERogerVasselin score an incredible 2-6, 7-6(4), 12-10 comeback win against Peers & Venus! 👏#NittoATPFinals pic.twitter.com/hftjnCIH6B

— ATP Tour (@atptour) November 18, 2020

The loss puts Peers and Venus in a precarious position within their group.

They must defeat top seeds Mate Pavic of Croatia and Bruno Soares of Brazil in their next match on Friday (Saturday morning AEST) to have any hope of advancing to the semifinals. They also need Melzer and Roger-Vasselin to lose their final round-robin match to remain in contention.

Peers is aiming to win his third ATP Finals title – a feat no other Australian man has ever achieved.