First Time In 30 Years Three Kiwi Men In French Open Doubles
Sunday 17 May 2015, 5:21PM
By dave worsley
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New Zealand will have three male players in the upcoming French Open doubles main draw for the first time since 1985 after the confirmation that Artem Sitak, Michael Venus and Marcus Daniell have all made the direct entry list.
For Daniell, 25 It will be his first Grand Slam tournament after he found a partner at the latest possible moment, Steve Darcis from Belgium and they become the last pair to make the entry. Daniell is ranked at a career high 79 in the world in doubles and recently achieved a semifinal finish at the ATP tournament in Istanbul and earlier in the year won the title at the ATP event at Montpellier with Sitak.
For Daniell it was touch and go as to whether he’d have to rely on a withdrawal to make the main draw cut for the French Open, but was able to find top 100 ranked singles player Darcis who required a partner.
“I just had to talk to everybody I could and it worked out beautifully in the end. I’ve played against a bunch of the best guys now and I don’t feel any sense of out of place playing against them now. Steve (Darcis) and I have been in touch quite a bit and we just made it into the draw, we’ll no doubt catch up on the weekend before the tournament starts to practice together. He’s very experienced and I think we’ll make a good team together,” said Daniell.
Sitak is at a career high ranking of 46 and will combine with regular doubles partner Nicolas Monroe from the United States. Together they were finalists at the Bucharest ATP event as well as the Challenger tournament at Aix en Provence. It will also be the first French Open for Sitak.
Venus is ranked 64th in doubles will team with Croatian Mate Pavic. The pair have won two Challenger titles and been a finalist in another plus made the quarterfinals of an ATP in four of their last five events.
The Kiwi players are all taking part in the Nice and Geneva ATP tournaments this coming week as their build up to the French Open starting 24 May.
The last time three New Zealand men played in the main draw doubles at the French Open was when Chris Lewis, Russell Simpson and Kelly Evernden were all in the field in 1985.