No complaints from Sitak over omission for Games Federer dispatches Evans amid Wimbledon rain
Artem Sitak has copped it on the chin that he missed out on a spot at the Olympics because he slipped behind Marcus Daniell in the tennis rankings for one week in 31⁄2 years.
It was announced on Friday that Michael Venus and Daniell would be going to Rio to represent New Zealand in the men’s doubles. Venus has consistently been the top-ranked player and for all but one week since January, 2013, Sitak was No 2.
But the players had agreed that the top two players the week after last month’s French Open would go if a New Zealand doubles team were selected for the Games. Roger Federer knocked off his second straight British opponent on a rain-hit day at Wimbledon yesterday, with the seven-time champion beating Dan Evans 6-4 6-2 6-2.
The win under the closed roof of Centre Court followed a straightset rout of 772nd-ranked qualifier Marcus Willis, a teaching pro who revelled in a few days of national acclaim.
The 91st-ranked Evans failed in his attempt to become only the fourth Briton to defeat the all-time grand slam leader after Andy Murray, Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski.
Federer improved to 6-1 over British players at Wimbledon.
‘‘I got off to a good start in all
That week Daniell went ahead of Sitak by one place, at 53, and the next week Sitak was back ahead.
‘‘First of all, I’m really happy for the guys to have actually made it,’’ Sitak said from London, where he’s been playing in the men’s and mixed doubles at Wimbledon. three sets, that means you can play more freely,’’ Federer said as he reached the fourth round.
‘‘He was under pressure, I was able to get a lot of balls back and stay in the aggressive position.
‘‘I’m extremely pleased with how I played.’’
Scheduling became a drama due to repeated rain interruptions to a backed-up programme.
Earlier, Juan Martin del Potro stepped up his re-emergence after years of wrist injury drama as he shocked fourth seed Stan Wawrinka 3-6 6-3 7-6 (7-2) 6-3.
Former finalist Tomas Berdych, seeded 10th, beat Benjamin Becker 6-4 6-1 6-2 and French 12th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga dispatched Juan Monaco 6-1 6-4 6-3.
Nick Kyrgios managed a five-set win in just two hours as he beat
‘‘It’s great that they’re have a shot at a medal.
‘‘Unfortunately for me, that one week where Marcus made the third round of the French Open meant he passed me by one spot.
‘‘It is what it is. We agreed altogether at a Davis Cup dinner going to last year in Christchurch, that the two highest-ranked players on that day would go.’’
Sitak and Daniell have spent most of the year as a doubles pair, branding themselves as Team Kiwi. They only split up at Roland Garros because they thought their Dustin Brown 6-7 (3-7) 6-1 2-6 6-4 6-4.
Del Potro underwent his third wrist surgery since 2010 last year and has been taking baby steps back as he slowly returns to fulltime play. The Argentine, who has now stopped Australian and French Open winner Wawrinka in their past four encounters dating back to 2009, could not have dreamed of his success.
‘‘It all feels amazing at the moment,’’ he said. ‘‘I beat a guy who is playing great tennis. I could not have expected this win.’’
The 2009 US Open champion added: ‘‘I played better after losing the first set, I’m feeling so happy on court.
‘‘This is my first grand slam in three years, all I’m trying to do is play tennis again. It’s like my combined ranking may not good enough to get them in.
They teamed up the week after the French Open and won the ATP tournament in Stuttgart, Germany, but Daniell had already told Sitak that he didn’t want to play with him at Wimbledon, meaning Sitak be second or third career,’’ the 27-year-old said. The match was the first meeting between two grand slam champions in the second round of a major since the 2013 US Open, when Lleyton Hewitt defeated del Potro.
In the women’s third round, five-time winner and eighth seed Venus Williams was caught by the rain on a match point and leading Russian Daria Kasatkina 7-5 4-6 7-6. After the fourth pause of the match – 70 minutes – the 36-yearold came back to close it out 10-8 in the longest final set of her career.
Top seed Serena Williams made it past Christina McHale 6-7 (7-9) 6-2 6-4 and into the fourth round, winning with a dozen aces but later smashing a racket in frustration despite the win. had to quickly find a new partner.
‘‘There are several reasons,’’ Sitak said, when asked why they’d parted ways.
‘‘We decided before Stuttgart that we we were going to split up.
‘‘Marcus decided after the French Open that he was going to play Wimbledon with Brian Baker and him deciding not to play pretty much the biggest tournament of the year with me, showed that it wasn’t in his plans to keep everything going and really fight for it.’’
Sitak says he’s looking for a new partner, which isn’t easy at this time in the season.
‘‘That’s going to be a tough task, because all of the good doubles players have already teamed up, but I’ll keep asking and hopefully I can find a good partner for the rest of the year at least.
‘‘For the next few weeks I’m set up with Nicholas Monroe and now I’m looking at who I can play with at the US Open and go from there.’’
Venus and his regular partner Mate Pavic have only agreed to stay together until the US Open, with the Croatian looking to spend more time playing singles.
Sitak says there is a possibility of forming a new partnership with Venus.
‘‘We could give it a shot,’’ he said. ‘‘Obviously it will depend on the rankings, I’ll talk to Mike closer to the US Open. He’ll have a better idea on what he’s going to do and so will I. Maybe we can team up together, we played well in Auckland that one time we played together and in Davis Cup.’’