Alex Bolt and Priscilla Hon secure first victories at Cairns’ international tennis tournament
Cairns has hit the midway point of two massive weeks of tennis that will prepare some emerging stars for a spot in the coming Australian Open summer of tennis. Read more here.
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CAIRNS is only halfway through its back-to-back international tennis tournament series but spectators have already seen some blistering performances across the draw.
Sunday’s heat and humidity barely bothered the female finalists of the first tournament as top seed Priscilla Hon secured a three-set victory over fourth seed Kimberly Birrell in a match that endured for more than 230 points.
As the pair recovered from their grueling ordeal, the qualifying rounds for the second tournament continued on Monday.
Matt Hulme defeated fellow Australian Thomas Patton in straight sets and will next contest Luke Sorensen for one of the six qualifying positions.
Hon and Birrell have contested some epic matches before, but this one was so taxing that Hon during her victory speech said to her opponent, “please, let’s not do that again”.
“It was so long; every point was super tough,” Hon said.
“We’ve had close matches but never like that.”
Hon is one player hoping to find herself in the main draw of the Australian Open without the need to participate in qualifying rounds.
“I’m trying to get my ranking up so I don’t need to play qualifying, but I feel like I’m running out of time as I’ve only got a couple of tournaments left,” she said.
“I’m taking it each match at a time.”
The match’s stats showed barely any difference between Hon and Birrell. They won an equal amount of break points, mirrored each other for percentage of service points won and showed little daylight between total points won. But Hon’s accuracy on her first serve, 72 per cent to Birrell’s 62 per cent, showed when it mattered most as she served out the final set.
“She has great returns. I knew to close it out I had to have a lot of first serves in,” Hon said.
“The crowd was great yesterday … it does help having people there watching; it definitely changes the atmosphere a lot.”
Two unseeded players contested the men’s final. Australian player Alex Bolt, formerly ranked 129 in the world, won the final in straight sets against Northern Mariana Islands player Colin Sinclair.
Tournament director Jason Simmons said the second week of the two-part tournament is likely to prove just as exciting as the same players have a crack another prizemoney purse of $50,000, as well as vital international ranking points.
“Players have had a great couple of weeks here in Cairns,” Simmons said.
“The Australian Open summer is looming large; players are looking to boost their rankings heading into that to put them higher up on the entry lists for those events.”
The main draw of the second week begins tomorrow. Play begins from 10am.
Entry for spectators is free.
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Originally published as Alex Bolt and Priscilla Hon secure first victories at Cairns’ international tennis tournament
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