Tennis:

New Zealand doubles player Artem Sitak and his American partner Austin Krajicek have been beaten in the semi-finals at the ATP clay court tournament in Houston.

Third seeds Ken and Neal Skupski of Britain have been too strong, winning 6-1, 6-4 in 55 minutes.

It was tighter than the score suggested with the different being break point conversions.

Sitak and Krajicek failed to take any of their 5 chances while the Skupski brothers broke serve 4 times from 5 looks.

Sitak and Krajicek now head to Europe for next week's Monte Carlo Masters.

Meanwhile Marcus Daniell and Spanish partner David Marrero are through to the final of the Murcia Challenger tournament in Spain.

They've beaten 3rd seeds Ariel Bahar 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 and will face Australian Rumeez Junaid and Belarussian Andrei Vasilevski in the final