HOT FORM: Hawke's Bay's Finn Reynolds and Durate Vale of Portugal will play in today's junior boys doubles final in Melbourne. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
HOT FORM: Hawke's Bay's Finn Reynolds and Durate Vale of Portugal will play in today's junior boys doubles final in Melbourne. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
Expect the Hawke's Bay Lawn Tennis and Squash Club in Napier to be in party mode tonight.
And that will be whether or not one of their favourite sons, 17-year-old Finn Reynolds, and his Portuguese partner Durate Vale win their under-18 doubles final at the Australian Open in Melbourne. Thepair have already exceeded expectations in reaching the final and Reynolds has achieved the best result by a Hawke's Bay-based player at any level on the international stage.
"This is a fantastic result and Finn played some of the best tennis of his career," Reynolds uncle and long-time sponsor John Penny said last night before booking a flight to Melbourne for the final.
Reynolds, who has a junior world ranking of 104 and 16th ranked Vale will play Chinese Taipei's Yu Hsiou and China's Lingxi Zhau in tonight's final after they beat the top seeds Toru Horie and Yibing Wu of Japan 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (7-3) in a thrilling semifinal yesterday. Penny said Reynolds and Vale trailed 5-2 in the first set.
"There was one crucial point when Finn fell and left the court open and one of their opponents hit the ball into the net. Finn served and volleyed well and some of his serves were clocked at 190km/h."
In the second set Vale and Reynolds led 5-2 before they lost the next four games during a momentum swing. During the tie-breaker Reynolds and Vale took a 6-3 lead after trailing 2-1.
Wu is ranked No 3 in the world and is the top seed in the singles where he has reached the semifinals.
Reynolds was eliminated in the first round of the singles. This is the first tournament where he has combined with Vale.
Earlier this summer Reynolds won the the singles and doubles titles at the Sarawak Cup in Kuching, Malaysia. In 2014, the left-handed Reynolds, who has won national under-14 and under-16 doubles and singles titles, beat the United States No1 Steven Sun 3-6 6-1 6-2 at the world under-14 championships in the Czech Republic on the way to helping the Kiwis record a top-10 finish in the team event.
