23 September 2013 | Tennis Queensland

The 2013 Cairns Tennis International has finished for another year with two first-time Pro Tour winners victorious at the Cairns International Tennis Centre.

In the women’s singles final second seed from Victoria, Azra Hadzic secured her first Pro Tour singles title defeating fourth seeded Western Australian Jessica Moore.

Hadzic was in sublime form as she raced through the first set untroubled taking it 6-3. Moore started to find her rhythm as she took the second by a similar scoreline of 6-3. But it was Hadzic who stepped it up in the final set coming away with a 6-3 3-6 6-2 victory.

Hadzic will take another special memory of Cairns home with her.

“Ever since that first year I’ve had really good results here and to make a final and get my first (Pro Tour) win, I’m really happy about,” the Melburnian said.

“It got a bit tight in the second set, but I forgot about the conditions and got back into my groove.”

The men’s singles final was contested between good friends and doubles champions Andrew Whittington from Victoria and number two seed from South Australia Alex Bolt.

Whittington went one better than last week’s Toowoomba final by taking the match and his maiden Pro Tour singles title. Whittington rarely looked troubled on serve as he broke Bolt early and took the set 6-4. He broke Bolt again early in the second and eventually held his nerve to serve out the match 6-4 6-4 on his sixth match point.

Whittington spoke of the nerves he was feeling.

“I’ve never felt like that before, I still feel like I’m out there playing,” he said.

“I was shaking and after I lost the first point I didn’t panic, but I definitely tensed up a bit.”

“It feels good to be up here a winner, that’s for sure.”