Good doubles wins for Sitak and Rai

New Zealand doubles player Artem Sitak has won his opening round doubles match at the Nottingham grass court Challenger tournament in England.  Playing with Australian Marc Polmans the Antipodean dup have beaten the British wildcard pair of Liam Broady and Ryan Peniston 6-2 7-6 (2) in one hour 20.

Michael Venus and Tim Puetz have had to withdraw from this week’s ATP250 tournament in Stuttgart with Puetz making the third round at Roland Garros. They will play their first tournament together on grass at next week’s ATP 500 tournament in Halle.

Marcus Daniell and his Austrian partner Philipp Oswald are the fourth seeds and face a tricky assignment against the vastly experienced Freddie Nielsen and Jean-Julien Rojer.

Meanwhile young Kiwi Ajeet Rai is back out on the ITF circuit and is playing his second event in Monastir in Tunisia. He is through to the second round in the doubles playing with Australian Jeremy Beale. They have beaten Tunisia’s Yanki Erel and Algeria’s Youcef Rihane 6-2, 6-4 in 56 minutes.

Paige Hourigan is back out on the women’s tour playing a US $25,000 tournament in the Dominican Republic.