GD Jones will play second seed James Shortall in the final of the Auckland championships after both players had straight-set wins in their semifinals yesterday.
The matches were held indoors at the National Training Centre in Glen Innes because of rain.
While the men's matches were straightforward, the women's matches had an upset of sorts with third seed Niki Tippins, who hails from Canterbury but lives in Auckland, beating second seed Ilke Gers in three sets.
A winner of the event in 1998, Tippins beat Gers, who was the champion in 2000 and 2001, 5-7 6-2 6-1.
Gers did not have a good serving day and with Tippins grinding out every point and running every ball down, the second seed was totally out of the final set.
Top women's seed Shelley Stephens made short work of former international Tracey O'Connor for a 6-3 6-1 win and is looking in good form for the title.
In the men's matches top seed Jones was too quick at closing out the points for fellow junior Kiril Tcherveniachki, who didn't have shots big enough to really damage Jones's game.
In the first set Tcherveniachki had opportunities to challenge Jones but couldn't capitalise on his return-of-serve, which at times put him a winning position.
Jones wrapped up the second set with a little more ease, the final score 6-4 6-3.
Davis Cup squad member Shortall, the second seed, quickly found himself down a break of serve and 0-3 to Daniel King-Turner but fought back in the set to win 7-5 after they had to swap courts as a result of a leak in the roof.
Eventually Shortall started to return King-Turner's serve with power and put pressure on the 19-year-old, wining the second set 6-3.
Both singles finals will be held tomorrow evening.
Tennis: Top men hold off challengers
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