Canberra Velocity’s men ’s team were unable to continue their run of upsets in the Asia-Pacific Tennis League at Melbourne Park today, losing a heartbreaking tie against the highly-fancied Kooyong Classics 2-4.
With top seed Alex Bolt unavailable to play after making the Australian Open doubles quarter-finals with Andrew Whittington yesterday, it was up to 19-year-old Canberran James Frawley to lead the charge.
The men’s team got off to a horror start with team manager Alun Jones winning only two games against Daniel Byrnes and Frawley losing his match against Rubin Statham 3-4, 0-4.
However Jake Eames and Robert Howe clawed Velocity’s way back into contention with straight set victories.
Eames beat David Bidmeade 4-3 (5-3), 4-2 and Howe defeated Daniel Nolan 4-3 (5-4), 4-2 to level the tie.
In the doubles decider, Eames and Jones served for the tie and were unable to convert three match points in the second set against Statham-Byrnes, eventually losing in a super-tiebreak 4-3 (5-4), 3-4 (4-5), (6-10).
Frawley-Howe also split sets with Bidmeade-Nolan, before losing a nail-biting third-set super-tiebreak 11-13.
Both the men and women will play off for 5th to 8th spot in the competition tomorrow.
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