{"id":3167,"date":"2011-10-10T17:03:15","date_gmt":"2011-10-10T09:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/?p=3167"},"modified":"2011-10-10T17:03:15","modified_gmt":"2011-10-10T09:03:15","slug":"dellacqua-mitchell-take-esperance-honours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/news\/2011\/10\/10\/dellacqua-mitchell-take-esperance-honours","title":{"rendered":"Dellacqua, Mitchell take Esperance Honours"},"content":{"rendered":"

Western Australia\u2019s Casey Dellacqua<\/strong> and Queensland\u2019s Ben Mitchell<\/strong> were yesterday crowned the 2011 Cliffs Esperance Tennis International Champions.<\/p>\n

After a busy week of top tier tennis action, Sunday marked the Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s Singles Final.<\/p>\n

Following a slight rain delay, the number one seed, Ben Mitchell <\/strong>(QLD) took on the number 2 seed Matt Reid <\/strong>(NSW) on court one. Coming into the match, Mitchell was the front runner after knocking out local favourite, Brydan Klein in the Semi-Finals the previous day.<\/p>\n

He had a solid build up to the tournament winning his first three matches in straight sets. He opened his finals bound campaign with a win over China\u2019s Peng Gao<\/strong> 6-1 6-3, before beating Scott Puodziunas 6-4 6-1. Mitchell then edged out the number 6 seed Jose Statham 7-6 7-6 before knocking out WA\u2019s Brydan Klein<\/strong> in 3 sets 6-2 4-6 6-2 to advance to the final.<\/p>\n

Reid had come off 3 consecutive 3 set marathon battles to pave his way to the final. He initially took an easy win over Calum Puttergill<\/strong> in the opening round, before surviving a 3 set thriller against Gavin Van Peperzeel<\/strong> 6-4 6-7 6-3. Matt was then forced to play 2 more consecutive 3 set epics, knocking Japan\u2019s Kento Takeuchi<\/strong> out 6-4 2-6 6-2 before conquering Issac Frost<\/strong> 4-6 6-4 7-5.<\/p>\n

Much to Mitchell\u2019s delight, this is where the 3 set matches ceased. The Queenslander simply outclassed Reid, smashing forehands deep into the court grazing the baseline time and time again, taking the 1st<\/sup> set 6-1. In the second set Reid seemed to settle and was much more competitive scrambling across the court to return Mitchell\u2019s deafening serve.<\/p>\n

The Sydney sider however began to fade and Mitchell was able to capitalise and attack. Claiming the championship in straight sets 6-1 6-4.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really stoked to have a win in Esperance.\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been playing some good tennis and have reached a few finals, so to have a win here was a great result for me. It\u2019s strange to come into the court as the number one seed. It\u2019s great for a bit of confidence, but can also create more pressure as you start to build expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next up was the Women\u2019s Final. [2] Olivia Rogowska<\/strong> (VIC) vs. [3] Casey Dellacqua<\/strong> (WA). The pair took out the doubles Final together on Friday, were each other\u2019s warm up partners, travel together and share the same coach – so the build up to the 2 peas\u2019 in a pod to face off in the final was a heavy build up.<\/p>\n

Olivia had a smooth lead up to the finals, winning in straight sets the whole way through. In the first round, she pushed past Kai-Lin Zhang<\/strong> 6-3 6-2, before outing New South Wales Monique Adamczak<\/strong> 6-1 6-3. She managed to claim victory against Turkish star Pemra Ozgen<\/strong> before cruising past USA\u2019s Lina Litvak<\/strong> in the Semi\u2019s 6-0 6-1.<\/p>\n

Dellacqua cruised through the first round matches beating China\u2019s Hao Ten Cheng<\/strong> 6-3 6-1 in the opening round, Emelyn Starr<\/strong> 6-3 6-2 before knocking off China\u2019s Yi-Fan Xu<\/strong> in the quarterfinals 6-4 6-2. \u00a0Dellacqua then came from a set down to knock out Sacha Jones<\/strong> the number one seed and resilient opponent 2-6 6-4 6-2.<\/p>\n

Despite Rogowska sailing through to the finals in straight sets, the final was another story. Dellacqua took control from the opening point and didn\u2019t allow Rogowska into the game throughout the entire match. Dellacqua closed the number 2 seed down in straight sets 6-2 6-1.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday was probably the best match I\u2019ve played all week. Liv\u2019s always a really tough competitor so I was lucky to get the goods today.\u201d Dellacqua said after her match.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been great to play in front of a really supportive crowd. My uncle and aunty live down here and my dad and his girlfriend drove down to watch me play, so it\u2019s really special to have that in my home state. I\u2019m looking forward to see how I go in Kalgoorlie next week.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the Pro Tour wrapped up in Esperance it will now shift to Kalgoorlie for the Goldfields St Ives Tennis International. \u00a0The Women\u2019s Qualifying will conclude today with Main Draw kicking off tomorrow.<\/p>\n

The Cliffs Esperance Tennis International <\/strong>is part of the 2011\u20132012 Australian Pro Tour,\u00a0 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 Cliffs Esperance Tennis International<\/strong>, the 2011\u2013 2012 Australian Pro Tour, Tennis Australia or the players, visit www.tennis.com.au<\/a>.\u00a0 For more information on the ITF Pro circuit visit www.itftennis.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For further media information please contact:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aly de Souza, Tennis West, Tel: 0432 393 517<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Western Australia\u2019s Casey Dellacqua and Queensland\u2019s Ben Mitchell were yesterday crowned the 2011 Cliffs Esperance Tennis International Champions. After a busy week of top tier tennis action, Sunday marked the Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s Singles Final. Following a slight rain delay, the number one seed, Ben Mitchell (QLD) took on the number 2 seed Matt Reid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5894,"featured_media":3168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5894"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}