King-Turner Makes Wellington Final

New Zealand tennis No2 Dan King-Turner has put on one of his better performances to reach the final of the US$15,000 ASB Pro Circuit tennis Futures in Wellington.

 

King-Turner ranked at 459 in the world beat third seed and 379th ranked Adam Feeney(Australia) 6-4 7-6(3) to make his ninth career final at ITF Futures level, however it was the way he played which was the highlight rather than the scoreline.

 

“I played fairly well. I had to play well. Adam made the final of the first week and I beat him 7-6 in the third set last week. I knew I had to play at my best today. He (Feeney) likes to come forward and it’s the way I like to play too, so there was plenty of attacking tennis. It was good to come out with the win,” said King-Turner.

 

The Kiwi started the match badly dropping his serve in the second game before breaking Feeney’s serve a game later. King-Turner remained steady for the rest of set also breaking Feeney in the seventh game before serving out the set.

 

There were several breaks of serve in the second set before King-Turner held his own serve to force a tiebreak where he quickly gained the upper hand as Feeney made a couple of uncharacteristic errors.

 

For the final King-Turner says there are still things to improve on and to focus on with coach James Greenhalgh.

 

“My serve was only about 50 percent today so that can get better. There was nothing major, just little things James and I can work on,” says King-Turner who has had a gradual improvement in results in the series making the second round at North Harbour in singles, but winning the doubles, the semis in singles at Hamilton and the final in Wellington.

 

King-Turner will play either second seed Tatsuma Ito of Japan or Korean Davis Cup player Young-Jun Kim in the final.

 

Earlier King-Turner had won the doubles title with GD Jones over fellow Kiwi Marcus Daniell and Australian Joel Lindner. It was the fifth title win together.

 

Fifth seeded Korean, Kyung-Yee Chae beat South African qualifier Lizaan Du Plessis in three sets in the first of the US$10,000 women’s semifinals.

 

Results:

Men’s semifinals:

Dan King-Turner(New Zealand) bt (3)Adam Feeney(Australia) 6-4 7-6(3)

Women’s semifinals:

(5)Kyung-Yee Chae(Korea) bt (Q)Lizaan Du Plessis(South Africa) 5-7 6-3 6-0.