KEY POINTS:
Kiwi tennis No 2 Dan King-Turner continued his run of good domestic form by completing his third win in a row at the New Zealand money series tournaments, with a straight-set victory in the Auckland Championships in Glen Innes last night.
King-Turner, ranked at 462 in the world, beat Wairarapa teenager Marcus Daniell (ranked 833) in the final 6-2, 7-6 (3) but it was Daniell who missed numerous opportunities to take the match into three sets.
Daniell had his opponent at 3-5 down and serving at love 40 for three set points down before the more experienced King-Turner fought back to hold serve. In the next game Daniell had another set point while serving at 40-30 but a double fault and a miss on an easy winner put paid to that and eventually King-Turner proved to be more efficient in the wind, taking away the tiebreak with relative ease.
In the women's final, Di Hollands was too consistent for Kairangi Vano, winning 6-3, 6-4. Vano had been up 3-1 in the second set but Hollands again proved to be arguably the best player on the domestic scene with more accuracy on her shots.
It was the second Auckland champs title for Hollands who won the event in 2006, and who still has eyes on a full professional career. Hollands will be aiming to put her name in the hat for any main draw or qualifying at the ASB Classic.
