Upsets In ASB Pro Circuit Tennis Finals

The lower seeds had it all over their higher ranked opponents in the finals of week one of the ASB Pro Circuit at Albany with Australian Rameez Junaid and Hong Kong’s Ling Zhang winning their respective men’s and women’s finals.



Junaid, the third seed from Australia outplayed second seed Adam Feeney in the US$15,000 men’s final while Zhang was far too strong in the women’s US$10,000 final playing some of her best tennis to destroy second seed and doubles partner I-Hsuan Hwang(Taipei) 6-1 6-0.



For Zhang, 19 the performance belied her current ranking of 369 and will give her plenty of confidence for the tournament this week in Hamilton and the following week in Wellington where she was a winner two years ago.



Zhang defeated the top seed Sandy Gumulya in the semfinals in straight sets and then second seed Hwang in the final for her third Futures title and one of the favourite tags for the next couple of weeks.



The men’s final was a minor surprise with Junaid the more experienced of the pair at 27-years-old winning 6-3 6-3 over 23-year-old Feeney for his third career Futures singles title, although the Melbourne player has been a beaten finalist on four occasions, including Wellington last year and also a Challenger final too.



Junaid currently at 407 in the world played an old-fashioned game of taking the pace off the ball, slicing and the odd serve and volley. Both players have had good rankings in the past with Junaid inside the top 300 in singles and sitting at 108 in the world in doubles, while Feeney has been inside the top 250 in singles and is 141 in doubles after being as high as 100.



Junaid and Feeney will be challenged in Hamilton by top-200 ranked Carsten Ball, also from Australia who joins the circuit and could be a real chance at a title or two. The 21-year-old Ball has become somewhat of a Davis Cup hero for his nation winning his two away doubles matches against both Chile and Thailand.



The best of the New Zealanders was Rubin Statham in the singles quarters with Di Hollands in the second round of singles for the women, while Dan King-Turner and GD Jones won the men’s doubles final on Friday evening.



Results:

Men’s US$15,000 ASB Pro Circuit Futures Singles Final:

(3)Rameez Junaid(Australia) bt (2)Adam Feeney(Australia) 6-3 6-3

Women’s US$10,000 ASB Pro Circuit Futures Singles Final:

(6)Ling Zhang(Hong Kong) bt (2)I-Hsuan Hwang(Taipei) 6-1 6-0.