28 Mar 2011

Statham and partner beaten in doubles final

4:33 pm on 28 March 2011

New Zealand's Rubin Statham and Finnish partner Harri Heliovaara have lost the doubles final of a Challenger tournament in Pingguo, China to Russia's Michall Elgin and Alexanger Kudryavtsev.

After beating the Russian Evgeny Kirillov and Ducthman Matwe Middelkoop (6-1 7-5 in the semi-finals, Statham and Heliovaara were outclassed by the Russian fourth seeds 6-3 6-2.

Statham is now back in Australia to play the Ipswich Men's Future tournament starting tomorrow.

He has drawn seventh seed Australian Matt Reid in the first round.

Fellow New Zealanders Michael Venus, Marcus Daniell and Marvin Barker are playing the same event.