Tennis: No upsets on first day of NZ champs

Former Davis Cup player GD Jones.

The first day of play at the New Zealand Tennis Champs proved to be a warm up of what is to follow when the top seeds take the court as they target the available wildcards and ranking points in next month's ASB Classic.

There were no major upsets in the first round on Tuesday with the top four seeds having a bye through to the second round.

However some of New Zealand's best juniors won their matches with 18-year-old Hawkes Bay player Rob Reynolds beating Auckland's Te Kani Williams 6-4 6-4 to set up a clash with Kiwi No.1 and world No.365 Finn Tearney in the second round.

Second seed Rubin Statham will face Queenstown's Riki McLachlan who won his first round match over Auckland's Tim Heslin without losing a game while Wellington's Olly Sadler, who has been trying his luck on the international Futures circuit, will play Artem Sitak.

Third seed Michael Venus will play Auckland's Alex Low.

Promising junior Macsen Sisam, 15, raced through his first round without dropping a game but now has a harder task when he plays Connor Heap from Christchurch.

Another young junior on the rise, Finn Reynolds (Hawkes Bay) won through after having a good battle over the more experienced Gilles Degouy. Reynolds will now have his work cut out for him as he faces Canterbury's James Meredith in the second round.

The pick of the second round matches will see former Davis Cup player GD Jones up against the powerful Rhett Purcell who is a former Hawkes Bay player, now representing Britain and Daniel Brown against Canterbury's Remi Feneon should also feature some powerful rallies.

Jones took just over an hour to defeat Semisi Fanguna 6-0 6-4 in his first round match.

Of note was the pair of world No.43 and 44 in doubles Sitak and Venus winning their opening doubles match over Sam Heslin and Joshua McDermott 6-1 6-1.

Day two of the tournament will see all four of the women's top seeds, Sacha Jones, Leela Beattie, Rosie Cheng and Ashleigh Harvey play their first round matches. All singles matches start from 9.30am.

Men's singles and doubles winners gain valuable ATP ranking points and prizemoney from wildcards into January's ASB Classic, while the women's doubles winners gain a main draw wildcard into the ASB Classic women's tournament. The women's singles winner is awarded an ASB Classic qualifying wildcard.

Pascoes The Jewellers NZ Tennis Championships, results:

Men's singles first round:
Olly Sadler (Wellington) beat Bryce Hayr (Auckland) 6-3 6-4, 8 Remi Feneon (Canterbury) beat Connor Williamson (Auckland) 6-2 6-0, Macsen Sisam (Auckland) bt Howard Ho (Auckland) 6-0 6-0, Rob Reynolds (Hawkes Bay) bt Te Kani Williams (Auckland) 6-4 6-4, 6 Connor Heap (Canterbury) bt Freddie Cashmore-Chatwin (Central) 6-1 6-1, Daniel Brown (Auckland) bt Joshua Snowdon- Poole (Auckland) 6-1 6-1, 5 James Meredith (Canterbury) bt Elliot Lepetit (North Harbour) 6-1 6-0, Finn Reynolds (Hawkes Bay) beat Gilles Degouy (Auckland) 3-6 6-1 7-5, 7 GD Jones (Auckland) bt Semisi Fanguna (Auckland) 6-0 6-4, Rhett Purcell (Auckland) bt Ben Davies (North Harbour) 6-1 6-1, Riki McLachlan (Queenstown) beat Tim Heslin (Auckland) 6-0 6-0.

Women's singles first round:
8 Shaylee Syme (Auckland) beat Katie Antsupova (North Harbour) 6-0 6-1, Joanna Carswell (Auckland) beat Amy Galloway (Central) 6-0 6-2, 7 Taylor Brown (Auckland) beat Victoria Hockley (Auckland) 6-4 6-1, 5 Nina Paripovich beat Paige Alter (North Harbour) 6-0 6-0.