{"id":14296,"date":"2018-11-04T17:42:07","date_gmt":"2018-11-04T06:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/?p=14296"},"modified":"2018-11-04T17:46:21","modified_gmt":"2018-11-04T06:46:21","slug":"hives-and-thompson-win-apis-titles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/news\/2018\/11\/04\/hives-and-thompson-win-apis-titles","title":{"rendered":"Hives and Thompson win Apis CI titles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zoe Hives<\/strong> (Vic) has taken out her biggest career title\u00a0winning the Apis Canberra International<\/strong>, while Jordan Thompson<\/strong>\u2019s (NSW) victory sees him become just the second player to record 52 wins on the ATP Challenger Tour<\/strong> in a single season.<\/p>\n

Hives came out of the blocks firing against defending champion Olivia Rogowska <\/strong>(Vic), breaking early to go out to a 4-2 lead.\u00a0 She served for the first set at 5-3, but Rogowska broke back, before another break of serve saw Hives clinch the first set.<\/p>\n

Hives continued her strong form in the second securing a break to go up 3-1.\u00a0 The 22-year-old held her nerve to bring up match point on Rogowska\u2019s serve at 5-2.\u00a0 Hives hit a strong return with Rogowska hitting a forehand into the net, sealing Hives\u2019 third Pro Tour title for the year and her maiden USD$60,000 title.<\/p>\n

It capped off an incredible week for Hives who fought through three 3-set matches just to make the final.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say I was expecting it with that score, with the way my scores have been going this week I was expecting it to be going into 3 sets. I came out and was feeling really good, it\u2019s the best I was feeling all week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hives will now spend some time recovering from a big few weeks which also saw her claim the Pro Tour title in Toowoomba, before beginning preparations for the Australian Summer of Tennis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rest of this year is getting my body right, addressing a few things that have come up in these six weeks of tournaments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is the [Australian Open] Wild Card playoff and I will do my best efforts there. Next year will be cracking the top 200 hopefully and I will see how I go with that\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the men\u2019s final, Thompson cruised through the opening set over rising star Nicola Kuhn <\/strong>(ESP) 6-1 in just 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

With scores locked at 5-5 in the second set, Kuhn held serve to put the pressure back on Thompson.\u00a0 Kuhn managed to secure the break to take the second set.<\/p>\n

The third set proved to be a back and forth battle with a total of five breaks of serve.\u00a0 It was Thompson though who secured the break at 4-4 and went on to hold serve claiming his second consecutive ATP Challenger title and third title for 2018.<\/p>\n

Thompson has now won 14 of his past 15 matches on the ATP Challenger Tour and was pleased to come away with the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI nearly played a flawless first set, I didn\u2019t miss many balls, and my serves went really well. I barely made an error, but of course Nicola picked up his game and in the end it turned into a real battle\u201d.<\/p>\n

The results the past few weeks have seen Thompson return to the world\u2019s top 100 with the Australian pleased with where he sits at the end of his season.\u201cI slipped out of rankings [top 100] for two months. I have been there for a while, it was disappointed to slip out, but I just have to get back out there and keep going.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was expecting to be around 90 thinking I had two more tournaments to go, and I won these two events and made a big jump so I am pretty happy with myself.<\/p>\n

Final results<\/em><\/p>\n

Women\u2019s Singles Final – Zoe Hives (Vic) d [4] Olivia Rogowska (Vic) 6-4 6-2<\/p>\n

Men\u2019s Singles Final \u2013 [3] Jordan Thompson (NSW) d Nicola Kuhn (ESP) 6-1 5-7 6-4<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s Doubles Final [1] Ellen Perez (NSW) \/ Arina Rodionova (Vic) d [3] Naiktha Bains (Qld) \/ Destanee Aiava (vic) 6-7(5) 6-3 10-7<\/p>\n

Men\u2019s Doubles Final \u2013 Evan Hoyt (GBR) \/ Tung-Lin Wu (TPE) d Jeremy Beale (Vic) \/ Thomas Fancutt (Qld) 7-6(5) 5-7 10-8<\/p>\n

– ends –<\/p>\n

Apis Canberra International 2018 Fast Facts<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n