Bendigo, VIC, 11 January 2020 | Asher Packman

The men’s and women’s doubles titles have both been taken out by all-Australian pairs at the Apis Canberra International in Bendigo on Saturday, with Alison Bai and Jaimee Fourlis successful alongside compatriots Luke Saville and Max Purcell.

After losing the first set 7-5, local Canberran Bai and Victorian Fourlis recovered to take their match 4-6 7-5 [10-8] over Hungarian Anna Bondar and Pemra Ozgen of Turkey.

“I definitely think we got off to a little bit of a slow start but we were able to pick it up,” Fourlis said. “They were playing some really good tennis and I thought we combined well together to come back in the second set. In the end, we just had to play solid and stick to our game. We knew what we had to do and we executed it really well.”

The title is their second together, the duo also winning the ACT Claycourt International #2 last year. They have now compiled a 10-1 record from their last three events.

“Any title is a good week and obviously being the first week of the year, we’ve started off on the right foot. Hopefully, it’s a positive for the summer coming up,” Bai added. “For it to be Canberra, and my local tournament, there’s always a little extra bonus. I hope it can inspire some young kids back home to pick up a racquet and get involved.”

Saville and Purcell made it two from two for the Aussies when they defeated third seeds Jonathan Erlich of Israel and Belarusian Andrei Vasilevski, 7-6(3) 7-6(3). It is the eighth ATP Challenger title the pairing have collected since teaming up last year.

The men’s singles final will be a battle of the generations with rising 20-year-old Finn Emil Ruusuvuori taking on experienced German Philipp Kohlschreiber, 16 years his senior. The women’s final will see top seed Patricia Maria Tig of Romania play Poland’s Magdalena Frech.

Live scores of all Australian Pro Tour events are available through www.tennis.com.au/protour/scores and for a live stream of selected events visit www.tennis.com.au/protour. For updates, follow @oztennisresults on Twitter.

Photo: Ben Southall