The Asia Pacific Tennis League is set to hit Adelaide from the 20–22 November with matches played at various venues across the weekend. The ATL is now in it’s fifth year and continues to evolve to be Australia’s highest level team tennis competition.
This year South Australian teams will compete in Pool B of the South Conference with teams from Western Australia and Tasmania, the winner and runner up of Pool B and will be competing to make it through to the conference finals against the top two teams from Pool A of the South Conference made up of Victorian club teams and Dover Square Tennis Club from South Australia.
Amongst the big names in the competition will be Thanasi Kokkinakis, Brad Mousley and American female Jennifer Elie.
The ATL is played using the FAST4 scoring format, designed to create a shorter, faster paced match for players and spectators.
>ATL South Conference Pool B Fixture
Teams
Prospect
Entering the ATL for the first time in 2015/16 Prospect TC will be looking to do more than just make up the numbers, the Prospect team is headlined by American Jennifer Elie who has a career high WTA ranking of 286. Elie will be hard to beat at number one single and will be joined by Adelaide girls Olivia Ley and Elyse Edwards. Edwards has had a successful college career in the US and is now focusing on breaking through at Pro Tour level and will be focusing her efforts in November on pushing Prospect into a top two finish in the pool stage of the ATL. Olivia Ley is one of the top players in South Australia and will be looking to continue her impressive results in the ATL after winning a number of match at number one singles in last year’s ATL season.
The Prospect team is rounded out by young guns Maddie Bishop, Brooke Milner and Amber Marshall who will all be hungry to make their mark on the ATL competition.
North East Tennis Association
NETA will be entering the ATL for the second straight year after a competitive first year in the ATL in the 2014/15 season. The Knights have been bolstered by the inclusion of South Australia Bradley Mousley, Mousley is building his ranking and currently sits around 500 in the world and is rising fast. NETA’s teams features great depth with Port Lincoln’s Darren Polkinghorne at number two singles and college player Damian Farinola at three. NETA Coach Jason Todd is confident the team they are putting on the park will be a real chance of making the top two in the 15/16 ATL Pool Stage “We’re happy with the list we have put together this year, it’s a new look team and adding Brad, Damian and Darren has given us great depth which is very important in this competition”. Veterans Tim Crichton and Josh Crowe will round out the team and add value experience and doubles nouse.
Kensington Gardens
Entering the ATL for the first time in 2015/16 Kensington Gardens are looking to make a splash from the start. Arguably the biggest recruit for the 2015/16 season is Team Coach Jim Chaousis who has previously taken the Flagstaff Freighters to an Asia Pacific Tennis League Title in 2013. Chaousis has built a strong team with Bulgarian Dia Evtimova taking up the number one singles position, the Bulgarian will be joined by Hungarian 20 year old Naomi Totka and British touring player Nicola Slater. The strong international flavor will be bolstered with South Australia’s top player Nicole Collie also lining up for the Wildcats. Look for the Kensington to come home strongly later in the pool stage once they build their team chemistry in early rounds.
The Drive
The Drive have been a constant figure in the ATL since the competition’s inception and they look to again have put together a strong line up that will go close to repeating last year’s Conference Title. The Drive team is headlined by rising star Thanasi Kokkinakis, Kokkinakis who has shot up the rankings to be ranked well inside the top 100 and will be hard to beat at number one single. Joining Kokkinakis will be Queenslander Ryan Agar, Japanese youngster Yuya Ito and young South Aussie Daniel Hobart. 17 year old Hobart has made some big strides in the last 12 months at Pro Tour level and will be looking to take further strides against strong opposition in this year’s ATL season.
Dover Square
Also competing in the ATL for the first time, Dover Square will be looking to match it with the big boys form the start. Youngster Li Tu will have to be at his best playing at number one singles but is up to the challenge if he can get some wins early. Dover’s strength is their youth with rising South Australian prospects Sean Van Rensburg, Stefan Norodom and Mislav Bosnjak all looking to make their claim on the big stage with wins over more fancied opponents.
Dover will be competing in Pool A of the South Conference against three Victorian teams so will gain valuable experience from the opportunity to play players such as Luke Saville and Alex Bolt who are competing for Victorian teams.
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