Week 48 - Cambodia F2 ($10,000) - Phnom Penh (Hard)

steven · Tennis legend

RE: Week 48 - Cambodia F2 ($10,000) - Phnom Penh (Hard)

wolf · Tennis legend

SF: (4) Marcus Daniell (NZL) & Richard Gabb WR 1814 beat (1) Maximilian Neuchrist & Artem Sitak (AUT/NZL) WR 793 4-6 6-3 [10-4] biggrin
SF: (2) Wan Gao & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (CHN/IND) WR 1049 beat Antoine Escoffier (FRA) & Alexander Ward WR 1962 6-3 6-4 cry

F: (4) Marcus Daniell (NZL) & Richard Gabb WR 1814 v (2) Wan Gao & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (CHN/IND) WR 1049

steven · Tennis legend

I must admit, I thought Alex's run might come to and end against the top seed, so very well done to him for making his second Futures singles Final in three weeks - he held serve throughout this match:

SF: (4) Alex Ward WR 453 beat (1/WC) Chen Ti (TPE) WR 214 by 3 & 4 biggrin

He will play the winner of (3) Axel Michon (FRA) WR 382 (CH 246 in Apr) v Artem Sitak (NZL) WR 714 (CH 299 in 2008), neither of whom he has played before. It looks like they are going to go to a 3rd set.

freerider · Futures level

that looks like, on the face of it, a very strong result.

steven · Tennis legend

FINAL: (4) Alex Ward WR 453 v Artem Sitak (NZL) WR 714 (CH 299 in 2008)

insomniacfolder · Challenger level

Excellent result for Alex there in the SF.

A cursory glance at Sitak's history seems to suggest that he has been on a protracted steady decline for several years, and is not misleadingly lowly ranked.
The final looks pretty winnable.
Good luck!

indiana · Tennis legend

Excellent indeed. Be great if Alex can add a second title within 3 weeks here.

steven · Tennis legend

insomniacfolder wrote:
Excellent result for Alex there in the SF.

A cursory glance at Sitak's history seems to suggest that he has been on a protracted steady decline for several years, and is not misleadingly lowly ranked.
The final looks pretty winnable.
Good luck!

Sitak ended 2008 (the year he hit his career high of 299), 2009 and 2010 (the year he won the last of his 4 Futures singles titles) ranked 339, 352 and 345 respectively, so he was a fairly steady top 400 player over that period. The decline appears to have started when he switched from Russia to New Zealand at the start of 2011 and has accelerated this year.

I have no idea why he switched nationality, but my guess is he had a tenuous link to NZ and wanted to play Davis Cup. He was the only kiwi with a +ve singles record in DC this year but they still got relegated to Asia/Oceania Group II, losing to Alex's favourite opponents Taiwan. (I say 'favourite' because not only did Alex upset the Taiwanese no. 3 today, he also beat the Taiwanese no. 1 to record his career best ranking scalp earlier this year)

A word of caution though - having been top 300 once, Sitak is probably capable of playing well above his current ranking when he really feels like it, he has reached four SFs (or better) since mid-September having reached none in 2012 before that and he did beat the 3rd seed (top 400 player Michon, last week's runner-up who had won 11 of his previous 13 matches) today.

steven · Tennis legend

Back to back titles in Indochina for Richard & his kiwi mate:

F: (4) Marcus Daniell (NZL) & Richard Gabb WR 1814 beat (2) Wan Gao & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (CHN/IND) WR 1049 by 6-1 7-6(5)

steven · Tennis legend

In fact, that makes 40 doubles titles in ATP-ranked events for pairs including at last one Brit this year (22 for all-Brit pairs, 18 for 1-Brit pairs):

- 1 Wimbledon
- 3 ATPs
- 7 Challengers
- 29 Futures

steven · Tennis legend

FINAL: (4) Alex Ward WR 453 lost to Artem Sitak (NZL) WR 714 (CH 299 in 2008) by 6-4 6-7(3) 7-6(4) bleh

Still, with two Finals in three weeks (and 41 points, almost half his total, in the last 2 months including 30 in November alone), Alex has at least salvaged something from a difficult year.

-- Edited by steven on Saturday 1st of December 2012 06:22:13 AM

steven · Tennis legend

Just one break in the first two sets - Sitak broke in the 10th game to win the 1st 6-4

but Alex has just won the 2nd set tiebreak 7-3.

steven · Tennis legend

Alex got broken early in the final set but broke back immediately ... it's now 4-6 7-6(3) *5-5

steven · Tennis legend

Goes down 0-15 but wins the next 4 points to lead 6-5*

steven · Tennis legend

Somewhat inevitably the way it has been going ... tiebreak time!