Two Kiwis Through At ASB Pro Circuit Tennis Futures On Day One

It wasn’t easy but two New Zealand players took the long road to make the second round of singles at the ASB Pro Circuit tennis Futures in Hamilton.



Di Hollands in the US$10,000 women’s draw ground out a three set win over her Australian opponent while Marcus Daniell did the same thing, also against an Australian in the US$15,000 men’s event.



For 19-year-old Daniell from the Wairarapa and ranked at 806 in the world the match was set to be finished in straight sets but didn’t quite go so smoothly against Australian qualifier Krishananth Balakrishnan but took three sets and a scoreline of 6-3 4-6 6-3 to progress.



“I don’t know what happened,” said Daniell after he was up a set and 3-0. “I still trying to figure it out. I just switched off in my head and got down on myself. Eventually I tried to relax a bit and get more balls in and get some rhythm.”



Daniell will play the winner of Oliver Statham versus second seed and 333rd ranked Tatsuma Ito of Japan.



Top-200 ranked Carsten Ball(Australia) won his singles over Korea’s Hyun-Woo Nam 6-2 6-3 and looks to be a real title contender for the tournament.



Meanwhile Hollands who made the quarters of the Sydney Challenger as a qualifier a couple of weeks ago and then the second round of the Pro Circuit last week at North Harbour won her singles against Alenka Hubacek 4-6 6-4 6-2.



Fifteen-year-old Leela Beattie of Canterbury put up a good fight in her match with Japan’s Ayaka Maekawa but lost her match 6-4 7-5. A winner with plenty of potential was women’s fourth seed Noppawan Lertcheewakarn(Thailand) who is the world No1 junior player. She beat Japan’s Aki Yamasoto 6-3 6-3



Wellington teenager Finn Tearney came close against talented Korean Davis Cup player Young-Jun Kim but couldn’t quite finish off the big points, eventually going down 6-4 6-3 while Kairangi Vano had all of the power but wasn’t able to defeat China’s Jie Hao who finished as the 6-0 7-6(5) winner.



In day two action Kiwis Rubin Statham and GD Jones clash in what could be an interesting encounter while Davis Cup team member Adam Thompson plays Haydn Lewis from Barbados and Dan King-Turner takes on qualifier Rylan Rizza.



Most interest will centre on Hamilton-born, 15-year-old Katherine Westbury who is currently based in Sydney. She has already made the quarters as a qualifier of one Futures event and will play qualifier Hayley Ericksen in what is a winnable match and should give Westbury a WTA ranking.