Kiwis in doubles final; BJK Cup team named
- Dave Worsley
- 5 hours ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 3 hours ago
A huge result for the New Zealand doubles pair of Finn Reynolds and James Watt at the US$100,000 Morelos Open Challenger.
They beat third seeds Francis Alcantara (Philippines) and Pruchya Isaro (Thailand) 6-3 2-6 17-15 in 1 hour 22 minutes to reach the final in Mexico on Friday (Saturday NZ Time).
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In the previous round Reynolds and Watts defeated Ray Ho (Chinese Taipei) and Govind Nanda (USA) 6-4 6-3.
Watt has an ATP ranking of 301 and Reynolds 185. By making the final the 50 rankings points will push them to new career highs.
Meanwhile world No 45 Lulu Sun will headline the New Zealand Billie Jean King Cup team as they seek promotion in their Asia/Oceania Group 1 event, held in Pune, India from 8-12 April.
The event features Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, China, India, Korea Republic and Thailand alongside New Zealand, with the top two teams qualifying for World Group Play-Offs in November.
The New Zealand squad will be seeded fourth and also features kiwi No 2 Monique Barry who has a WTA ranking of 486 and 263 in singles and doubles respectively and three young debutants in Aishi Das, Sasha Situe and Renee Zhang.
Erin Routliffe, who has been a regular feature in the New Zealand team is unavailable for the April event due to her schedule conflicts. A number of other players were unable to be released from college and schedule commitments.
Matt Hair returns as team captain after leading the side in last year in China where New Zealand finished third on count-back.
The event features a round-robin format, with national teams competing in head-to-head ties each day, made up of two singles and one doubles rubber