Sitak claims wildcard
ARTEM Sitak is the New Zealand men’s tennis champion for the third time, after defeating Finn Tearney 6-2 6-0 in a one-sided final yesterday.
Given that Sitak won the title in 2010 and 2013, he’s continued the pattern of winning it every three years, but for the first time his win guarantees him a main draw wildcard for the ASB Classic.
Tearney had won his last four matches against Sitak but, while Sitak had played well in the week, few would have predicted such a blowout in this final.
Sitak has made a shift to solely focus on doubles these days and has managed to become a world class player in that form of the game.
Singles is something he’s virtually given up on; he played just three singles matches on the circuit last year and his last win was in Kuala Lumpur in September 2015.
However, since returning to New Zealand a month ago he’s been playing singles regularly for Blockhouse Bay in the Caro Bowl and that, plus the three matches he’s played in this tournament, helped raise his levels to a place where Tearney couldn’t compete against him.
Sitak was not only solid at the baseline, but when he came into the net the point would only end up going one way, with the quick reflexes honed from playing so much doubles making it hard for Tearney to hit a passing shot.
Tearney, the New Zealand No 2, is a much better player than he demonstrated in this match but he wasn’t ever able to get into it and he’ll now have to hope for a wildcard to the Classic qualifying tournament next month.
There were plenty of stunned looking faces around the stadium as Sitak racked up game after game and even he admitted he didn’t expect to win the final like this.
‘‘Nobody could have predicted that and everything worked out my way,’’ he said.
‘‘I was playing really well, staying in the moment and focusing on every point.
‘‘Every game was close and it could have gone either way, but I just played a bit better in the important moments.
‘‘For two singles matches in a row I played really well,’’ he added.
‘‘I focused on what I had to do. I wasn’t thinking about the score or wildcards, I was just enjoying myself out there.’’
Sitak first tried to qualify for PHOTOSPORT the ASB Classic in 2011. In 2012 he beat a former winner of the tournament, Dominik Hrbaty in qualifying, but he had never been able to make it all the way through a qualifying draw.
This will also be the first time he’ll play singles in the main draw of an ATP tournament since Washington in 2011.
‘‘It’s really amazing,’’ he said.