New Zealand may have found a new star in tennis with recently turned 16-year-old Katherine Westbury gaining a win over a seeded player in the opening match of the Wellington tennis Futures tournament.
Westbury who was originally born in Hamilton but has spent time living in Christchurch, Sydney and Thailand defeated eighth seed and 450th ranked Nudnida Luangnam of Thailand in the first round of the US$10,000 ASB Pro Circuit at the Renouf Tennis Centre.
The 6-2 6-3 scoreline showed the complete dominance of the Kiwi and also the lack of composure of Luangnam who struggled to handle the often blustery conditions. The Thai player displayed her disapproval at the loss to an as yet ranked opponent by flinging her racquet half of the court at the completion of the match to which Westbury picked it up and then handed back to her.
Westbury will gain a WTA ranking next week after making the second round at Hamilton and previously a quarterfinal of a tournament last year.
She faces the Hamilton tournament winner, Ayu-Fani Damayanti(Indonesia) in the second round on Thursday.
In the men’s US$15,000 draw early wins went to Russian fifth seed Artem Sitak who is investigating applying for New Zealand citizenship. Sitak defeated Barbados player Haydn Lewis in three sets while eighth seed and North Harbour Futures winner, Rameez Junaid from Australia accounted American lucky loser Jordan Cox.
But New Zealand’s solitary male player in singles action on day one, GD Jones continued his wretched results in the series, losing to second seed Tatsuma Ito of Japan.
Jones led 4-1 in the first set but eventually 7-5 6-3. For Ito ranked at 333 it was another Kiwi scalp to add to his recent run. Last week he beat four New Zealanders on his way to the final in Hamilton where he was eventually stopped by Australian Carsten Ball.
Day two of the event will see nine locals take the court in singles the clash between No1 Rubin Statham and fellow Davis Cup team member, Adam Thompson late in the afternoon.
Dan King-Turner, Oliver Statham, Logan MacKenzie will all play along with Wairarapa professional Marcus Daniell who faces193rd ranked top seed and Hamilton winner Carsten Ball.
Daniell did have some success winning in doubles by teaming up with Joel Lindner(Australia) to defeated the highly respected top seeded Australians Adam Feeney 147th in doubles and Junaid ranked at 110 by a score of 2-6 6-4 10-7.
In women’s day two action Kairangi Vano plays Australian Alenka Hubacek, Di Hollands takes on fifth seed Kyung-Yee Chae(Korea) and Canterbury teenager, Leela Beattie comes up against American qualifier Sabrina Capannolo.
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