Wairarapa's Marcus Daniell upset New Zealand Davis Cup player G.D. Jones on the way to making the singles semi-finals of the International Tennis Federation futures tournament in Ramat Hasharon, Israel. The clash between Daniell, 19, and Jones came in the first round, with Jones, a seasoned professional and experienced Davis Cupexponent, expected to score comfortably over his lower-ranked countryman. However, that was not to be with Daniell recording a hard-fought but deserved 6-3, 7-6 victory.. It was not the only titanic struggle won by Daniell at that tourney. His third round fixture against Milaan Niesten, from the Netherlands, lasted all of 3½ hours with Daniell dropping the first set 6-7 but winning the next two 7-6, 6-2. And then in the singles semi-finals Daniell was up against another New Zealand Davis Cup squad member in Oliver Statham and Statham had to pull out all stops to win 7-5, 2-6, 7-6. Daniell was also to the fore in a second ITF futures event played in Ramat Hasharon. There he progressed to the quarter-finals of the singles where he was beaten by his doubles partner Miloslav Mecir, from Slovak Republic, the third-seeded Mecir winning 6-4, 6-4. Daniell and Mecir also reached the final of the doubles where they had a battle royal with G.D. Jones and his American partner Juan-Paul Fruttero. Daniell and Mercir took the first set 6-3 and Jones and Fruttero the second 6-2. That meant a third set super tiebreak being played to break the deadlock and it was Jones and Fruttero who came out on top 10-4.
