The Flagstaff Freighters have finished second at the Asia Pacific Tennis League Playoff at Melbourne Park after a run to the final in challenging circumstances.
The Freighters, who had to deal with injured and ill players, managed to win their way through to the final after beating the Canberra Velocity and Tennyson Vault to qualify. In the final they came up against Victorian powerhouse team, the Bayside Thunder.
The Freighters managed to win one of the four singles matches with Viktorija Rajicic having a strong win over Storm Sanders at number three single. Going in to the doubles at 1-3 down in rubbers, the tie was still alive and when Jess Moore and Polish Wildcard Katarzyna Piter won the second double in straight sets the Freighters looked to be a chance of an upset. In the final double, Freighters Viktorija Rajicic and Nicole Collie went to a third set match tiebreak before going down to their Bayside Thunder opponents 4-10. It was a gallant effort by Flagstaff who walk away from Melbourne as the runner up for the second straight year after taking out the title in 2013.
In the men’s competition The Drive fought hard but were without star players Yuya Ito and Thanasi Kokkinakis. They were competitive throughout their two matches but were not able to win either of their ties against New Zealand Kauris or Royal South Yarra’s and finished in seventh position overall.
The men’s ATL title was won by the Tennis Brisbane Chargers after they won a nail biter against Japan Phoenix that went down to the final double of the night.
In total there was over $100,000 in prize money on offer at the Asia Pacific Tennis League playoff with teams from New Zealand, Japan and Pacific Oceania competing against the Conference winners from across Australia.
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