Statham Keeps Kiwi Flag Flying

The depth of the ASB Pro Circuit Futures at North Harbour showed through in the second round of singles with a couple of upsets and a number of seeds pushed hard as players made their way into the business end of the tournament.

 

Top men’s seed Miles Armstrong of Australia lost in three sets to Chinese player, Jun-Chao Xu as a number of Asian players fought their way to the quarterfinals in the men’s US$15,000 draw and the US$10,000 women’s tournament.

 

New Zealand No2 and seventh seed Dan King-Turner fell by the wayside against Japan’s super-consistent Yuichi Ito 7-6(6) 3-6 6-4. Wellington teenager Finn Tearney pushed Australian second seed and 380th ranked Adam Feeney all the way but couldn’t complete the upset.

 

Feeney won the first set 6-3 with Tearney then refocusing his game to win the second 6-3 before the experience of the seeded player showed through 6-1 in the third set.

 

Third seed, Australian Rameez Juniad went to three sets against countryman Dayne Kelly, dropping the first set 0-6 but winning the next two almost as easily.

 

Also going to three sets against a seed was Di Hollands who tried in vain in her battle with Hong Kong’s Ling Zhang, the tournament sixth seed eventually losing 6-1 3-6 6-1 while fellow Kiwi Shona Lee was beaten quickly by second seed I-Hsuan Hwang from Taipei.

 

After a couple of rain delays Kiwi No1 and fifth seed Rubin Statham became the only local player left in the singles as he completed a 6-1 6-0 rout in 53 minutes over Australian qualifier Krishananth Balakrishnan.