KEY POINTS:
New Zealand tennis player Rubin Statham celebrated his 21st birthday with a win over 222nd ranked American Jesse Witten in straight sets to reach the quarter-finals of the ATP US$50,000 Challenger event at Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Statham, who is ranked at 534 in the world, defeated Witten 6-3 6-4 and will this morning face Latvia's Andis Juska who is 329th. Earlier in the tournament Statham, who is a lucky loser through qualifying, beat Romania's Catalin Gard 6-3 6-4 to score his first victory over a top-300 ranked player.
Statham will receive 13 ATP ranking points and US$1400 ($1,780) in prizemoney for reaching the last eight which will take his ranking to around the 480 mark.
It is the first time a Kiwi male tennis player has made the quarters of a Challenger at that level since Mark Nielsen in Bristol in 2002.
