In a week when eight-time Australian Pro Tour champion Talia Gibson is shining on the international stage at the Miami Open, two rising Australians have reached Pro Tour finals in Wodonga.
Both ranked outside of the top 500, Cruz Hewitt and Ashleigh Simes reached their respective singles finals at the grasscourt tournament.
The 17-year-old Hewitt appeared in his second career ITF men’s final following Launceston last year.
Hewitt’s campaign included his second victory over top seed James McCabe this year, in which he rallied from a set down to triumph 3-6 6-3 7-6(5). He ultimately lost to Colin Sinclair of the Northern Mariana Islands in the championship match.
Hewitt shifts his attention to the Swan Hill International this week, where he is the No.2 seed.
In the women’s singles, the 23-year-old Simes enjoyed an emphatic run to her first career ITF final. Simes, who represented the ACT in this year’s AO 1 Point Slam, did not drop a set en route, highlighted by her opening-round victory over No.2 seed Monique Barry of New Zealand.
She fell to South Korea's Ha Eum Lee 6-3 6-4 in the final.
Ty Host and Stefan Vujic won an all-Australian men’s doubles final, defeating Ymerali Ibraimi and Daniel Jovanovski 4-6 6-3 [10-8]. The victory handed both players their first-career ITF men’s doubles title.
After competing in the W35 Timaru doubles final in New Zealand the previous week, Amy Stevens and Belle Thompson broke through to win the women’s doubles. They defeated Barry and Australian Alexandra Osborne to emerge victorious.
Following his maiden ITF singles triumph in Kolkata last week, Philip Sekulic made it a second straight in India at an M25 event in Mumbai. The 22-year-old defeated Indai's Sidharth Rawat 6-1 6-2 in the final to claim top honours.
> READ: Sekulic wins first career singles crown
Chase Ferguson won an M15 doubles title in Maanshan, China alongside Chinese Taipei's Hsieh Cheng-Peng.
Meanwhile, Jizelle Sibai had a strong week at the J100 claycourt tournament in Canberra. The 16-year-old did not drop a set to claim the singles crown, before pairing with compatriot Leana Nannapaneni to win the doubles.
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