23 January 2013 | Tennis Queensland

The much anticipated Asia-Pacific Tennis League (ATL) finals began yesterday in near perfect conditions on the outside courts at Melbourne Park. 

Five conferences were staged across Australia in November with the winning team from each conference earning the right to participate in the finals playoffs. Wildcard teams were also allocated to New Zealand and the Pacific Oceania region. 

A prize pool of $95,000 is up for grabs with both the men’s and women’s winning teams pocketing $15,000 each. Each team match is comprised of 4 singles rubbers and 2 doubles rubbers played across two courts. 

With some of the top players from the region participating including John Millman, Jess Moore, Sam Groth, Luke Saville, Bojana Bobusic, Greg Jones and Daniel King-Turner, yesterdays first day of competition lived up to expectations, with some entertaining tennis on display. 

Although the top seeds in the men’s ATL progressed through to the semi-finals there were mixed results for the seeds on the women’s side. 

The upsets of the day were recorded by the New Zealand Tuis who defeated the third-seeded Kooyong Classics 5 rubbers to 1 and the WA Giants who defeated the Canberra Velocity 4 rubbers to 2.

In other results, top-seeded Flagstaff Freighters from South Australia were too good for the Shaw Park Sharks from Queensland while the Beenleigh Blaze, also from Queensland, went down to the Asia Pacific Tennis Institute Steelers from NSW. 

On the men’s side the Liston Seagulls (Vic) were too strong for the Kooyong Classics (Vic), the Brisbane Chargers defeated the Oceania Pacific Dolphins, ATP Sydney were too strong for the WA Giants (men) and New Zealand Kauris won a tight tussle against the Glenlea Gators (SA). 

The ATL finals will be played during three time slots; 11:00am, 2:00pm and 5:00pm with each team playing once per day. The ATL final will be played at 5pm on Thursday 24^th January.

For more information about the Asia-Pacific Tennis League (ATL) final please visit http://www.tennis.com.au/competitions/asia-pacific-tennis-league

To catch up on how the teams got here, have a look at the ATL Show episodes to make sure you haven’t missed a thing http://www.tennis.com.au/competitions/asia-pacific-tennis-league/videos.

ATL contacts:
Alistair MacDonald 0401 640 169
David Hearne 0405 345 437