Tough defeats for Routliffe and Sitak

New Zealand doubles players Erin Routliffe and Artem Sitak have suffered tough first round losses in their respective WTA and ATP tournaments in Colombia and Spain.

Routliffe and her partner Viktoriya Tomova have been beaten 1-6, 6-4, 11-9 in 58 minutes by top seeds Arantxa Rus and Tamara Zidansek in the first round of the Bogota Open.

Meanwhile Sitak and his Lithuanian partner Ricardas Berankis have been beaten in the first round of the ATP tournament in Marbella in Spain. They have lost a tight match to Mexicans Santiago Gonzalez and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela 4-6,6-4 13-11 in one hour 39.

Paige Hourigan opens her campaign at the ITF US $15,000 tournament in Sharm El Sheikh tonight against Estonian Maria Lota Kaul.

Hourigan is fresh from winning last week's tournament at the same venue.