KEY POINTS:
New Zealand managed to finish in the top half of the teams at the Asia-Oceania Federation Cup tennis competition in Christchurch despite all of the dramas concerning security, date changes, injured and unavailable players.
On the final day of the tournament at Wilding Park, the Kiwis played off
against Hong Kong China in a potentially difficult clash for fifth and sixth. Sacha Jones, 16, started the tie well for New Zealand scoring a three-set victory over Ling Zhang 6-2, 5-7, 6-1. Zhang, 17, had won the Wellington professional event earlier in the year and had beaten Jones in straight sets in a junior event a couple of weeks earlier.
Jones has a junior ranking of 11 and around 550 in seniors while Zhang is 20 and 650 on the WTA rankings but it was Jones who showed her potential.
Individually, Jones had one of the best records in the tournament. As a No 2 player, she finished with three wins from four matches, behind only Chin-Wei Chan from Chinese Taipei on five from five.
Chan was the only player to beat Jones. The best No 1 player was Su-Wei Hsieh from Taipei who won all five of her matches in the top spot.
The top singles against Hong Kong China featured Leanne Baker against Wing-Yau Venise Chan. Baker was in the match all the way but never quite had control, dropping the contest in three sets.
In the vital doubles, the combination of Baker and Di Hollands were not necessarily at their best but a hard fought win came their way 6-4, 7-5 over Chan and Ka-Po Tong to seal a 2-1 victory and fifth place - a satisfactory finish considering the side was meant to be in division two of the competition before changes moved all teams into the one group.
Team captain David Lewis said: "Sacha played very well today. She showed good mental strength and maturity to come through."
"Fifth place is okay. We came close to beating India which would have put us in the top four. The team really gelled well together," said Lewis.
Meanwhile Chinese Taipei sealed their place in the World Group 2 with a win over Thailand after some remarkable tennis.
Chin-Wei Chan defeated Napaporn 6-4, 7-5 in a hard-fought match but then, in the match of the week Su-Wei-Hsieh (ranked 117 in the world) defeated No 68 (and former No 19) Tamarine Tanasugarn 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 in a contest regarded as one of the best played at Wilding Park for many years.
Hsieh and Tanasugarn placed the ball all over the court in front of an enthusiastic crowd with Tanasugarn double faulting on match point to give the promotion tie to Chinese Taipei.