A place in the Apis Canberra International (Bendigo) will be on the line when the semifinals take place at the Fosterville Gold Tennis Centre on Saturday. Two of the men’s semifinalists are still to be determined with quarterfinal matches held over from Friday due to rain. The men’s and women’s doubles finals will also take place, with Canberra’s Alison Bai to feature.
In the women’s draw, top seed Patricia Maria Tig (ROU) will take on Ankita Raina (IND) in the first semifinal. Tig was a straight sets winner over qualifier Anna Bondar (HUN) on day 5, while Raina progressed to the final four after her opponent, third seed Sachia Vickery (USA) withdrew due to injury.
The other semifinal will see Magdalena Frech (POL) take on Ekaterina Gorgodze (GEO). Frech has been in solid form all week, dropping just nine games on her way to the semis, including a 6-1 6-1 win over Chihiro Muramatsu (JPN) today. Yesterday Gorgodze eliminated second seed Mandy Minella (LUX) and backed it up today by defeating eighth seed Kristina Kucova (SLO).
In the men’s event Emil Ruusuvuori (FIN) claimed his third seed for the week when he beat eighth seed Dominik Koepfer (GER), to go with his victories over Jannik Sinner (ITA) and Taro Daniel (JPN). The 20-year-old will now play Denis Kudla (USA) who has been equally impressive this week, beating world No.56 Ugo Humbert (FRA) yesterday and No.89 Jaume Munar (ESP) today.
The semifinalists in the bottom half of the draw are yet to be determined after the remaining two quarterfinals were interrupted due to rain on Friday afternoon. Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) had won the first set against Steve Johnson (USA) with it locked at 2-2 in the second set. The match between Soonwoo Kwon (KOR) and Evgeny Donskoy (RUS) had just headed into a first set tiebreak when the rain suspended play. The quarterfinals will recommence at 10.30am with the winners to play the semifinals Saturday afternoon.
Canberra’s Alison Bai will partner with Jaimee Fourlis (Vic) in the women’s doubles final when they take on Anna Bondar (HUN) and Pemra Ozgen (TUR). The men’s doubles final will also feature an all-Aussie pairing in Max Purcell (NSW) and Luke Saville (SA) who will play third seeds Jonathan Elrich and Andrei Vasilevski (BLR) who survived a match point in their semifinal today.
The women’s doubles final will commence at 10.00am with the men’s singles quarterfinals to recommence at 10.30am.
The Bendigo Challenger will also commence over the weekend with the ATP Challeger 80 event set to get underway at the Fosterville Gold Tennis Centre on Sunday. The entry field was released today and will feature eight of the world’s top 100 players led by world No.62 Miomir Kecmanovic (SRB).
Aces for Bushfire Relief
Every ace served during the Apis Canberra International (Bendigo) will see $100 being donated to the Australian Red Cross bushfire disaster relief and recovery.
Friday 10 January 2020 Total – 72 aces
Apis Canberra International Overall Total – 900 aces
Donations can be directed to the Australian Red Cross bushfire disaster relief and recovery efforts here
About the Apis Canberra International
The Apis Canberra International (Bendigo), will take place from 6-12 January 2020 at the Fosterville Gold Tennis Centre in Bendigo with a men’s ATP Challenger 125 and women’s USD$25,000 ITF World Tennis Tour event.
Due to the current conditions affecting Canberra, the decision was made to relocate the event to Bendigo. More information here.
Draws and the Order of Play – click here
Men’s live streaming and scoring is available here.
Women’s live streaming and scoring is available here
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