Canberra Velocity\u2019s Asia-Pacific Tennis League final bid ended in disappointment tonight, with both teams losing at the final hurdle.<\/p>\n
Velocity\u2019s women\u2019s team lost a controversial tie four rubbers to two against Asia Pacific Tennis Institute Steelers, while ATP Sydney were too good for the men, winning 5-1.<\/p>\n
Team manager Todd Larkham said the conference final was hampered by \u201cseveral bad decisions\u201d that \u201cwere not in the spirit of the game\u201d.<\/p>\n
He believed the rescheduling of the NSW\/ACT conference final was unfair, and suggested that a \u201cflaw in the rules\u2019\u2019 allowed for the Steelers to replay a match and \u201cstack\u201d their doubles team.<\/p>\n
Unable to field a full-strength team at the resumption of the final because of scheduling commitments, Velocity went in to last night\u2019s remaining matches without three of its top players.<\/p>\n
He said Velocity was notified too late that the team would be required to return on Thursday in the event of a washout and \u201cwe were unable to field our strongest team because many of our players had committed elsewhere\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were extremely disappointed that the match wasn\u2019t played the next morning like every professional tournament around the world. It may not have affected the outcome but we are extremely disappointed in the Tennis NSW rules commission, we believe they made several bad decisions which greatly hampered our ability to win the final,\u201d Larkham said.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThe ATL is a great competition and it\u2019s been good for Canberra; however as an inaugural competition, the rules need to be looked at.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ruling meant AIS scholarship holders Alex Bolt and Nick Kyrgios together with Nicole Hoynaski were unable to take the court, while Tennis NSW ordered a restart of the match in which Hoynaski held three set points against Trudi Musgrave.<\/p>\n
Larkham said he was of the understanding that all matches would be continued. \u201cThat is what they told us on Tuesday night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoynaski, who has flown to Thailand to compete in a tournament, was replaced by Tarlina Tipungwuti, who lost 4-1, 4-1, while Ashley Keir lost a thrilling match against Stephanie Bengson 4-2, 2-4, 4-2.<\/p>\n
In the hotly contested doubles, Velocity\u2019s Alison Bai and Tyra Calderwood won in a super tiebreak against Musgrave and Renee Reid 2-4, 4-2 (10-6), and Keir and Tipungwuti lost to Stephanie Bengson and Monique Adamczak 4-3 (5-2), 4-0, \u00a0to eventually lose the final four rubbers to two.<\/p>\n
Velocity\u2019s men\u2019s hopes were washed away with the rain on Tuesday, with the team unable to win another rubber against the ATP Sydney team last night, losing 5-1.<\/p>\n
Athletic baseliner Jake Eames couldn\u2019t keep the team\u2019s hopes alive, losing to Ryan Henry 4-1, 4-3 (5-4) after trailing 4-1, 2-2, when play was suspended.<\/p>\n
Larkham said it was always going to be a tall order for his Velocity team without its top two players.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rain didn\u2019t help our cause as it was always going to be tough without Alex and Nick,\u201d Larkham said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were only a few points in it in Jake\u2019s match, but unfortunately they were too good in the doubles as it turned out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Velocity couldn\u2019t salvage any pride in the doubles, with Damien Ward and Alun Jones outclassed by Adam Feeney and Ryan Henry, losing 4-0, 4-2, while Todd Larkham and Jake Eames lost in a super tiebreak to Nick Lindahl and Matthew Barton 4-3 (5-4), 1-4 (10-3).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Canberra Velocity\u2019s Asia-Pacific Tennis League final bid ended in disappointment tonight, with both teams losing at the final hurdle. Velocity\u2019s women\u2019s team lost a controversial tie four rubbers to two against Asia Pacific Tennis Institute Steelers, while ATP Sydney were too good for the men, winning 5-1. Team manager Todd Larkham said the conference final […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5910,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4777","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\/5910"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/act\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}