EVES Open: Thrilling tennis entertains Pāpāmoa crowd as four Kiwis head to quarter finals

Four Kiwis remain in the hunt for the EVES Open. Photo / Scott Yeoman, Tennis NZ

It’s quarter-finals time in Tauranga and there are still four New Zealanders in the hunt for the inaugural EVES Open singles title.

New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe, who won Player of the Year at the 2022 Tennis New Zealand Awards on Monday night, will be facing off against first seed Katherine Sebov from Canada.

Routliffe beat fellow Kiwi Monique Barry 6-2, 6-2 in the second round on Wednesday to progress to the quarter-final of this ITF World Tennis Tour event at Venture Developments WBOP Tennis Centre in Gordon Spratt Reserve, Pāpāmoa.

Routliffe’s opponent, Sebov, has been dominant all week – winning 6-0, 6-1 in the first round and 6-1, 6-1 in the second.

Players from Australia, Kazakhstan, Japan, the Czech Republic and Slovakia will compete in the other quarter-finals.

In the men’s competition, the golden run continues for Kiwi Rob Reynolds. He came through qualifying, earned his first ATP world ranking point in round one, and is now through to the quarter-finals where he will come up against fellow New Zealander Kiranpal Pannu.

Reynolds played compatriot and top seed Ajeet Rai in the second round and was winning the first set 6-5 when Rai retired hurt.

Pannu had a big win in round two against Australian Kody Pearson – 7-6, 6-3 – in front of a large afternoon crowd that made the win all the sweeter.

New Zealand’s Rubin Statham, second seed at the EVES Open, is also through to the quarterfinals.

He was beating Kiwi Isaac Becroft 4-0 in the first set when Becroft retired.

Statham will play Australia’s Derek Pham in the quarter-final.

Meanwhile, in the doubles, New Zealand’s Caelan Potts and James Watt had a thrilling victory over American Preston Brown and Australian Rhys Searant.

The match was hard-fought and full of entertaining rallies on the main court, which the Pāpāmoa crowd loved, and the Kiwis fought their way back from a set down to win 6-7, 6-4,10-5.

They will play fellow New Zealanders Reece Falck and George Stoupe in the semi-final.

Falck and Stoupe overcame Australia’s Tai Sach and Zaharije-Zak Talic 6-4, 6-2 in their quarter-final.

Kiwi Jack Loutit and his Japanese partner Daisuke Sumizawa are in the other semi against Australian pairing Jeremy Beale and Stefan Vujic.

There are three New Zealand women’s teams in the doubles semi-finals.

Kyna Decruy and Ruby Young will play Ashmitha Easwaramurthi from India and Yuka Hosokifrom from Japan.

And Monique Barry and Vivian Yang will play fellow Kiwis Paige Hourigan and Erin Routliffe.

Hourigan and Routliffe beat Australian partners Catherine Aulia and Mia Repac 6-4, 7-6 in the quarter-final to get there.

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