Statham Out To Russia Keen To Be Kiwi At ASB Pro Circuit
Saturday 14 March 2009, 1:19AM
By Dave Worsley
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New Zealand’s run in singles at the ASB Pro Circuit came to a sudden end in the quarterfinals of the US$15,000 men’s draw with Kiwi No1 Rubin Statham the tournament fifth seed at the event in Albany, North Harbour losing to the fourth seed Artem Sitak of Russia in amongst numerous rain delays.
Ironically Sitak ranked at 410 in the world is looking to reside in New Zealand and play for his adopted nation if everything works out.
Sitak won the match 7-6(5) 6-0 with Statham having several opportunities to take charge of the tiebreak but the consistency of the Russian showed through in the end as he ran down every ball and Statham hit a number of unforced errors.
Sitak will take on Australian second seed Adam Feeney in one semifinal while third seeded Australian, Rameez Junaid plays Japan’s Yuichi Ito in the other semifinal.
In the women’s semis top seed Sandy Gumulya of Indonesia will have to beat sixth seed Ling Zhang(Hong Kong) to make the final while second seed I-Hsuan Hwang(Taipei) will play So-Jung Kim(Korea) in the other semfinal.
Semifinal plays starts at midday.
Results:
Men’s US$15,000 ASB Pro Circuit quarterfinal singles, North Harbour
(4)Artem Sitak(Russia) bt (5)Rubin Statham(New Zealand) 7-6(5) 6-0.
Women’s US$10,000 ASB Pro Circuit quarterfinal singles:
(1)Sandy Gumulya(Indonesia) bt Ana-Clara Duarte(Brazil) 6-1 6-2, (6)Ling Zhang(Hong Kong) bt (Q)Lizaan Du Plessis(South Africa) 6-7(1) 6-3 6-4.