Three days of qualifying matches brought the world-class European clay courts at the Canberra Tennis Centre alive over the Canberra Day long weekend ahead of the ACT Claycourt International 2017 event #1 (14-19 March).<\/p>\n
The full schedule of matches was not dampened by the odd shower or two and with the player\u2019s sign in jam packed beyond bursting it was back-to-back action.<\/p>\n
The Canberra clay attracted 68 players at sign in for the first event, forcing four alternates out of competition. A rare sight on the Australian tour and a first for Canberra Pro Tour events.<\/p>\n
World No.225 Marc Polmans<\/strong> (VIC) and world No.252 Omar Jasika<\/strong> (VIC) were unexpected sign-ins for the competition. Both progressed through qualifying after brief straight set victories and an early retirement to take the top seed positions in the event #1 main draw.<\/p>\n The 18-year-old National Academy member Dimitri Morogiannis<\/strong>, was one of four local players and coaches taking to the clay over the long-weekend, alongside Nathan Jamieson, Jarred Wynan<\/strong> and Zac Donaldson<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Morogiannis was the only local making it through the first round of qualifying on Saturday after his opponent Hassan Bakkar<\/strong> (VIC) retired at 6-1 3-0. Sunday saw Morogiannis come out firing against Omar Fields<\/strong> (VIC) taking the first set to a tie-break. Fields proved too strong, defeating Morogiannis in straight sets 7-6(3) 6-1.<\/p>\n A second round highlight was the sheer determination on show between fourth seed Aaron Addison<\/strong> (AUS) and\u00a0Erik Holt-Crossman<\/strong> (AUS). After a tie-break a-piece, Addison took the match 6-7(6) 7-6(7) 6-3, in what was the longest match of the qualifying competition.<\/p>\n The final round of qualifying featured eight of the top nine seeds, with only number three seed, Darren Polkinghore <\/strong>(VIC) heading home early.<\/p>\n The first two days of the main draw will feature Jasika first up at 10am on court 8 against promising junior Lucas Vuradin<\/strong> (AUS).<\/p>\n ACT Claycourt International event #1: Main Draw Day 1 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Order of Play <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Tuesday 14 March 2017<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 10:00am Lucas VURADIN (AUS) vs Omar JASIKA (AUS) [3] MS<\/p>\n 10:00am Steven DE WAARD (AUS) vs Fernando ROMBOLI (BRA) MS<\/p>\n 10:00am Jason KUBLER (AUS) vs Sora FUKUDA (JPN) MS<\/p>\n 10:00 Jake DELANEY (AUS) vs Thales TURINI (BRA) MS<\/p>\n Not Before 11:30 Jose STATHAM (NZL) [7] vs Aaron ADDISON (AUS) MS<\/p>\n Not Before 11:30 Rhett PURCELL (GBR) vs Maverick BANES (AUS) [8] MS<\/p>\n A full round of doubles will also be played tomorrow. Tournament information including full Order of Play & Draws can be found on the #1 tournament website<\/a> and #2 tournament website<\/a>.<\/p>\n The ACT Claycourt International 2017<\/strong> is part of the Australian Pro Tour, a series of professional tennis events that bridge junior events and the ATP\/WTA Tour, providing an opportunity for players to earn their first world ranking points.<\/p>\n For more information about the Australian Pro Tour, Tennis Australia or the players visit www.tennis.com.au<\/a> . Watch the Canberra Pro Tour Live Stream<\/a> and keep up to date with live scores through\u00a0www.tennis.com.au\/protour\/scores<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Three days of qualifying matches brought the world-class European clay courts at the Canberra Tennis Centre alive over the Canberra Day long weekend ahead of the ACT Claycourt International 2017 event #1 (14-19 March). The full schedule of matches was not dampened by the odd shower or two and with the player\u2019s sign in jam […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5971,"featured_media":10737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5971"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}