Sitak seeking new partner
Artem Sitak is once again on the lookout for another doubles partner after splitting with Divij Sharan from India.
The New Zealand No 3, who is ranked 73 in the world, had hoped Sharan would be a long-term partner for him, after having to team up with nine different players last year.
But Sitak says Sharan has decided to end the partnership after just two months of this season, so once again the likeable Sitak is on the hunt for a teammate.
‘‘Unfortunately this year we played well, but we didn’t win a lot of matches,’’ Sitak said of his split with Sharan.
‘‘We beat some really good teams, like Mike [Venus] and [Jonathan] Peers in Auckland.
‘‘Also Austin Krajicek and Franko Skugor in New York, who were seeded No 1.
‘‘In Delray Beach we lost in the second round to the Bryan brothers in three sets.
‘‘Then the week after in
Santiago we lose to the tournament winners [Roberto Carballes Baena and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina] again in a third set tiebreak.
‘‘It’s unfortunate and we had tough draws, but you’ve got to find a way to win and we didn’t find that way in the last two months,’’ Sitak added.
‘‘I was willing to continue and keep fighting together. But Divij felt that we should look for other partners for the clay court season.
‘‘So that’s what we’re going to do and I’m probably going to be playing with singles guys at clay court events in Europe, which isn’t bad for the clay, because it’s different to hard courts or grass courts.
‘‘I’m just looking short term now and trying to find players for a few weeks at a time and see what happens.’’
Sitak is prepared to get through the next couple of months picking up partners wherever he can, but has set a goal of teaming up with someone who’s a doubles specialist by the time the grass court season begins in June, so that he has a good combination going in time for Wimbledon, which starts on June 29.
‘‘For the grass I need a good doubles player, because my results on grass every year are very good and I’m making a lot of points,’’ he said.
‘‘I consider myself a really strong grass court player, three of the five ATP events I’ve won were on grass and I’ve also got to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon.
‘‘Hopefully other players think the same way and high ranked guys are willing to play with me for the grass season, which isn’t very long, but I can do a lot of damage there.’’
With Sharan pulling the pin early, it has left Sitak in limbo. But it’s not uncommon for there to be plenty of chopping and changing of partners, particularly among those players who have a ranking not quite good enough to get them into the lucrative ATP Masters tournaments.
‘‘It happens throughout the year and last year it happened a lot more than usual around April and May,’’ Sitak said.
‘‘I’ll be on the lookout and people know I’m on the lookout.’’