Tennis: Winning streak a surprise even to Baker

Leanne Baker will play doubles at the ASB classic. Picture / Paul Estcourt

Waikato's Leanne Baker continues to create all sorts of records after winning yet another New Zealand Residentials title.

The 24-year-old from Te Awamutu, who has a wildcard for the ASB Classic doubles main draw after making the WTA event final last year, was happy with her victories in the national champs but was blissfully unaware of how many she had won.

"I thought it was six singles titles and that this would be my tenth doubles title," she said.

In fact the singles victory was her third consecutive win and her seventh in nine years. Her doubles win with teenager Kairangi Vano over Paula Marama and Lisa Wilkinson was her 11th consecutive triumph. She won her first national senior doubles title with Rewa Hudson in 1995 and has been etched on the trophy ever since.

Her singles win over second seed Tracey O'Connor was as straight forward as the 6-0, 6-2 scoreline suggests, although O'Connor was having trouble with an ankle injury. Baker had an appendix operation three weeks ago.

A win would have been part of the plan for O'Connor, 22, to further her case for a wildcard into the ASB Classic qualifying.

She may have put herself ahead of Vano in the list for wildcards but will have to prove her fitness first.

In the men's final top seed Dan King-Turner beat second seed Adam Thompson 6-4, 6-2 in a well-compiled effort.

The win means King-Turner, 21, goes into the four-man Heineken Open wildcard playoff after Christmas with a distinct advantage over Thompson, Rubin Statham and William Ward.

The victory was also sweet for the former Cantabrian, who was a beaten finalist to James Shortall in a third-set tiebreak two years ago in the Residentials.

The final was serve-for-serve until the seventh game, in which King-Turner broke Thompson and managed to hold on for a 6-4 first set win.

In the second set it was breaks at the third and seventh games which gave King-Turner the lead to serve out 6-2 for the match.

"It was close at the start, he had me at love-40 on my serve at one stage. I just had to hang tough and cut down on my errors. After the break in the first set I felt the pressure go off me slightly," said King-Turner, who is ranked at 676 compared with Thompson's 799.

"It's all good preparation for the wildcard tournament and it's great to finally win the Residentials."

The next domestic tournament is the national 18s at North Harbour.