Tennis: Artem Sitak falls short of doubles title in New York

Artem Sitak. Photosport

New Zealand doubles specialist Artem Sitak and his Dutch partner Wesley Koolhof have fallen just short of winning their first ATP doubles title together.

Sitak and Koolhof have been beaten 6-4, 4-6, 10-6 in the final of the New York Open by second seeds Belarussian Max Mirnyi and Austrian Philip Oswald.

It was a case of missed opportunities for Sitak and Koolhof who have now lost three ATP finals as a team after joining forces after Wimbledon last year.

Sitak and Koolhof managed to convert just one of eight break point opportunities in the match which lasted 1 hr 28.

After losing a tight opening set Sitak and Koolhof rallied in the second with an early break and then served strongly to force a deciding match tie break.

But it proved a step too far for the unseeded pairing as Mirnyi and Oswald quickly took control to capture the title.

Despite the loss the 32-year-old Kiwi is likely to improve from his current ranking of 59 to just outside the top 50.

Sitak and Koolhof will now head to Delray Beach for for this week's ATP tournament. They will play American Scott Lipsky and Indian Divij Sharan in the first round.

Michael Venus ranked 17th and his South African doubles partner Raven Klaasen are top seeds for the first ATP250 tournament in Marseille. They will face the Russian pair of Danil Medvedev and Mikhail Elgin in the first round.

Marcus Daniell and his British partner Dominic Inglot are the four seeds and have been drawn against Germany's Maximillian Marterer and Portugal's Joao Sousa in the first round.

To get the day's top sports stories in your inbox, sign up to our newsletter here