Two Kiwis Reach Quarters At ASB Pro Circuit Tennis In Hamilton

Two New Zealanders have made the quarterfinals the Pro Circuit tennis Futures in Hamilton with very different journeys to the last eight.

 

New Zealand No1 Rubin Statham was convincing as he reached his second consecutive quarterfinal at.

 

Statham, 21 cruised through his match in the US$15,000 ASB Pro Circuit to reach the last eight with a 6-1 6-3 victory over Barbados player Haydn Lewis.

 

In the quarters Statham will face second seed Tatsuma Ito(Japan) who beat Wairarapa professional Marcus Daniell 7-5 6-4. Daniell, 19 had several opportunities to change the face of the match levelling the score at 5-5 and also 4-4 but Ito ranked at 333 was able to keep a steady head while Daniell ranked 806th played erratic shots when consistency would have been better.

 

Dan King-Turner had to work hard, but he managed to win his way into the quarterfinals coming from a set down and claiming the contest in a third set tiebreak for the second match in a row.

 

King-Turner, 24 who has an ATP world ranking of 459 beat Australian fourth seed and 379th ranked Adam Feeney 5-7 6-4 7-6(4) in the second round.

 

The Kiwi No2 was struggling to walk a couple of days ago with right knee ligament damage but put in a solid performance in a high quality match with his serve pulling him through, especially in the tie break where he came up with three aces while Feeney made a couple of uncharacteristic errors.

 

King-Turner will play Rameez Junaid after the Australian beat fifth seeded American Stephen Bass in the longest match of the tournament, three hours and 17 minutes 6-3 6-7(8) 6-3.

 

In other second round matches top seed, Australian Carsten Ball blasted his way past Korean Davis Cup player Young-Jun Kim 6-3 6-2 while women’s fifth seed and winner of last week’s ASB Pro Circuit title at North Harbour, Ling Zhang beat Kiwi wildcard Di Hollands 7-6(3) 6-1.

 

In women’s US$10,000 second round singles Hamilton born Katherine Westbury, 16 took third seed Montinee Tangphong(Thailand) to three sets but couldn’t match the experience of her opponent who is ranked inside the world’s top 350.

 

The Thai player winning the match 6-1 4-6 6-1 to move into the quarterfinals.

 

Also winning was the world’s top junior girl, Noppawan Lertcheewakarn, the tournament fourth seed from Thailand who easily overcame Japan’s Yrina Koshino 6-2 6-0.

 

 

ASB Pro Circuit US$15,000 men’s singles second round:

Dan King-Turner(New Zealand) bt (4)Adam Feeney(Australia) 5-7 6-4 7-6(4), (1)Carsten Ball(Australia) bt Young-Jun Kim(Korea) 6-3 6-2, Rameez Junaid(Australia) bt (5)Stephen Bass(United States) 6-3 6-7(8) 6-3, Ze Zhang(china) bt (7)Matteo Viola(Italy) 6-4 6-3, Shao-Xuan Zheng(China) bt Andrew Thomas(Australia) 7-5 6-3, Yuichi Ito(Japan) bt Nima Roshan(Australia) 6-4 3-6 6-3.

ASB Pro Circuit US$10,000 women’s singles second round:

(5)Ling Zhang(Hong Kong) bt (WC)Di Hollands(New Zealand) 7-6(3) 6-1, (1)Sandy Gumulya(Indonesia) bt Lizaan Du Plessis(South Africa) 6-0 6-1.

Men’s doubles semifinals:

Armstrong/Feeney(Australia) bt Zeng/Zhang(China) 7-6(6) 6-3, Gong/Yu(China) bt Ball(Australia)/R Statham(New Zealand0 6-2 6-7(3) 10-7