30 March 2018 | Tennis ACT

Kaylah McPhee (Qld) and Irina Fetecau (ROU) have taken out the doubles title at the ACT Claycourt International #2 with a 6-1 4-6 10-5 victory over fourth seeds Pia Kong (AUT) and Michika Ozeki (JPN).

The win marks McPhee’s first ITF Pro Tour doubles title and the second title for Fetecau.  It capped a fairytale week for the unseeded pair who only decided to play together at the last minute.

“For a few days I couldn’t find anyone, I thought everyone is taken I’m not going to be playing doubles at all.  We were just both lucky we didn’t have partners and said ok let’s play. We just loved it out there and were enjoying every second of it,” McPhee said.

The pair came through some tough matches during the week and are taking a lot of confidence out of the win.

“We went for it, we didn’t even think about it.  Every match was so close, in second round against Alison Bai and Zoe Hives we saved three match points, and yesterday we saved five set points.

It means a lot to see how strong we were on court, to see that we can beat such good players, it gives us confidence and I hope we’ll be able to play again together,” Fetecau said.

The pair will now head in different directions as Irina heads home to Europe, while McPhee will turn her attention to events in Asia.  Fetecau and McPhee are hopefully they will play together soon when their schedules align.

In singles quarterfinal action on Friday, it was a great day for the Australian’s with Jaimee Fourlis (Vic) overcoming fourth seed Shezarad Reix (FRA) after recovering from 1-4 in the deciding set, while Zoe Hives (Vic) progressed after top seed Gabriella Taylor (GBR) was forced to retire with injury at 5-5 in the opening set.

Ellen Perez (NSW) rounded out a perfect day for the Aussies with a tight straight sets victory over Jia-Jing Lu (CHN) and will now face second seed Eri Hozumi (JPN) who easily accounted for Katy Dunne (GBR).

Singles semifinals will commence at 11am on Saturday with entry to the Canberra Tennis Centre by gold coin donation.

Draws and order of play can be found here