Kiwi Woman Struggle - Men Continue

The perils of professional sport were shown on day two of the at the Configure Express Pro tournament in Wellington. The wind calmed down the play of the lesser known opponents did not in the US$25,000 women’s event leaving just one Kiwi remaining in the singles draw for round two.

Kiwi No1 Sacha Jones the tournament eighth seed may have been the winner of an event of the same prizemoney on the weekend in Western Australia, but today she was defeated by hard-hitting Australian Tammi Patterson 6-4 2-6 6-3 in the first round. Nothing seemed to go quite right for Jones, who was the winner. Every time the Kiwi hit the ball back hard it was returned with interest by Patterson who is ranked at 351 compared to Jones at 269.

Jones had a break point to go ahead 3-1 in the third set but failed to capitalize on this opportunity and others and showed her frustration in the set with racquet abuse including a point penalty.

And while Jones lost, the top seed and world No42 Jarmila Groth(Australia) was forced to work had to defeated the 284th ranked Chiaki Okadaue(Japan) winning 6-4 6-4 to progress to the second round. Other early day two first round results included 15-year-old Canterbury protégée, Emily Fanning going down to Brit, Melanie South while fifth seed Erika Sema(Japan) beat Australian Alison Shemon 6-1 6-2.

Thai-Kiwi Katherine Westbury is the solitary local in the second round and faces seventh seed Kumiko Iijima(Japan) who is ranked at 262. Westbury, 17 is ranked 743rd in the world.

The men’s US$15,000 Futures has six Kiwis remaining in the second round singles, although Russian-born Artem Sitak is awaiting his Kiwi passport. He plays Aussie-Kiwi Marvin Barker for a place in the quarterfinals.

Sam Groth plays Auckland teenager Adam Lee in his second round match which is preceded by his wife Jarmila Groth opening play for the day at 11am against German Nicola Geuer.

Rubin Statham faces Australian big hitter Joey Swaysland, Kiwi No1 Michael Venus plays another Aussie James Duckworth and French-based Kiwi Sebastian Lavie takes on second seed Sebastian Rieschick.

The women’s SU$25,000 tournament and men’s US$15,000 Futures event run until Sunday at the Renouf Tennis Centre.

Results

Configure Express Pro US$25,000 tournament:

Women’s singles first round:

(New Zealand unless noted)

(1)Jarmilla Groth(Australia) bt Chiaki Okadaue(Japan) 6-4 6-4,  Tammi Patterson(Australia) bt (8)Sacha Jones  6-4 2-6 6-3, Melanie South(UK) bt Emily Fanning 7-5 6-2, (5)Erika Sema(Japan) bt Alison Shemon(Australia) 6-2 6-1, (4)Erini Geogratou(Greece) bt Scarlett Werner(Germany) 6-1 6-4, Anna Zaja(Germany) bt Nicole Rottmann(Austria) 6-2 6-4, Timea Babos(Hungary) 7-6(4) 6-2, (3)Arina Rodionova(Russia) bt Shiho Akita(Japan) 6-4 6-3.

Men’s singles first round:

(8)Rubin Statham bt Gilles De Gou(France) 6-0 7-5, Marvin Barker bt Martin Colenbrander 7-6(5) 6-3, Riccardo Sinicropi(Italy) bt Todd Volmari(Australia) 6-1 6-2, Joey Swaysland(Australia) bt Nima Roshan(Australia) 7-6(0) 7-6(3), Dane Propoggia(Australia) bt Olly Sadler 6-0 6-1, (6)Dayne Kelly(Australia) bt Leon Frost(Australia) 7-5 6-1, (1)Brydan Klein(Australia) bt Alex Trillini(Australia) 6-3 6-2, (2)Sebastian Rieschick(Germany) bt Adam Staub 6-0 6-2.