New Zealand doubles player Artem Sitak has come up short in this morning's final at the ATP tournament in Estoril, Portugal.
Sitak and his Dutch partner Wesley Koolhof have lost 6-4 6-2 to the British paring of Kyle Edmund and Cameron Norrie in 1 hr 09.
'We started the matchon fire we were up 3-1,40-0 serving but they hit some unbelievable returns to break back," Sitak said.
"Just about every game went to deuce and they won a lot more deuce points than they did and that was the difference in the match. So it was closer than the score suggests but all credit to them, they were playing really well."
The defeat continues the barren run for Sitak and Koolhof in ATP Tour finals. They have now lost all five tour level finals they've played together since starting as a team after Wimbledon last year.
The last of Sitak's three ATP doubles titles was in 2016 playing with fellow Kiwi Marcus Daniell in Stuttgart.
"We have won a lot of matches playing together and our record is very good. Yes we are losing the finals, very disappointing but it would be very funny if our first title would come at the French Open," Sitak said.
Despite the defeat Sitak will move back into the top 50 in the ATP doubles rankings and is expected to be 48th when the rankings come out later today.
He has pulled out of this week's ATP Challenger tournament in Aix en Provence to spend a week training before heading to next week's Bordeaux Challenger.
