Tennis: Statham showing decent form in Asia

Rubin Statham. Photo / Supplied

In An-Ning, China, Statham made the second round of the singles before losing to third seed Ze Zhang in three sets. New Zealand player Rubin Statham has been in tidy form over the past fortnight as he competes in challenger events in Asia in a bid to improve his ATP ranking.

Last week at the US$50,000 tournament in An-Ning, China, Statham made the second round of the singles before losing to third seed Ze Zhang in three sets. Statham also progressed to the doubles semifinal with Australian Alex Bolt before going down to the second seeds in three sets.

Now the New Zealand No1 has won through to the final round of qualifying at the US$125,000 challenger in Kunming, China. He won his first two singles matches in straight sets before losing to Laurynas Grigelis of Lithuania in the playoff for a place in the main draw. Statham will now have to hope for a "lucky loser" spot in the main draw.

In the doubles, he is teamed up with Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia, but they face a tough task against top-seeded Thai pair Sanchai Ratiwatana and Sonchat Ratiwatana.

Statham has a current ATP singles ranking of 313, after recently being as high as 279, while he is currently sitting at a career-high No161 in doubles.

Fellow Kiwi Michael Venus qualified for the US$50,000 Tallahassee challenger last week before losing to former top 50 player Donald Young. In the doubles, Venus reached the quarter-finals with Christian Harrison before bowing out.

This week Venus is in the main draw of the US$50,000 Karshi challenger in Uzbekistan, a tournament where he made the final in 2010. He faces Russian Alexander Kudtyavtsev in the first round.

Elsewhere, Kiwi Davis Cup squad member Sebastian Lavie won the doubles final at the Israel Futures after combining with Ireland's Sam Barry. They beat Takuto Niki and Arata Onozawa of Japan for Lavie's second career ITF doubles title.

At the Madrid Open, Kiwi No1 Marina Erakovic lost her first-round singles qualifying match against Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru in three tight sets.

She will now team with Zimbabwe's Cara Black in the doubles.