22 November 2011 | Tennis West

Western Australia’s Casey Dellacqua has won her fifth Pro Tour title while Queensland’s Benjamin Mitchell took out his second title for the year at the Latrobe City Tennis International yesterday. The semi-finals and finals were both played out on Sunday as rain postponed the event on Saturday.

Dellacqua, who has been impressive throughout this year’s Pro Tour season, defeated Sacha Jones (NZL) 7-5 7-6(6) to win the Championship.

The No.1 seed had another strong week of tennis defeating Japanese qualifier Mai Minokoshi 6-0 6-1 in the first round before being pushed to three sets in the second round by Great Britain’s Melanie South 6-7(3) 6-4 6-1. In the quarterfinals Dellacqua met Monique Adamczak (NSW) whom she defeated 6-3 6-4 and overcame No. 3 seed Isabella Holland (Qld) 6-3 6-4 to reach her fifth Pro Tour final.

Dellacqua was pleased with her performance and is looking forward to the summer ahead.

“It’s always good to win one, and two but yes winning five I guess is quite good. Sacha and I have played a few times this year already, so I knew what to expect.  The conditions were really windy, but I did what I had to do to get the win.

“I think I’ve set up my year really well by playing all these tournaments and got my ranking in a good position to have a good year next year so that was my main goal,” said Dellacqua.

In the men’s competition, top seed Mitchell outclassed New Zealand’s Michael Venus to win the title 7-6(3) 6-7(2) 6-0.

On his way to the finals Mitchell did not lose a set defeating qualifier Callum Puttergill (Qld) 6-2 7-6(3), Japan’s Hiroyasu Ehara 6-3 6-2, South Australia’s Jack Schipanski 6-4 6-4 and the No. 3 seed Ze Zhang (CHN) 6-4 7-6(6) in the semi-final.

In the doubles event, Luke Saville (SA) and Andrew Whittington (Vic) defeated No. 3 seeds John Peers (Vic) and Dane Propoggia (NSW) 4-6 6-4[10-5] and Stephanie Bengson (NSW) and Tyra Calderwood (NSW) overcame Monique Adamczak (NSW) and Bojana Bobusic (WA) 6-7(2) 6-1 [10-8] to win the women’s title.

The Pro Tour will now move to Bendigo for the William Loud Bendigo International, the final leg of the 2011 calendar.

The Latrobe City Tennis International is part of the 2011 – 2012 Australian Pro Tour, a series of professional tennis events that bridge junior events and the ATP/WTA Tour, providing an opportunity for players to earn their first world ranking points.

For more information on the tournament, the 2011 – 2012 Australian Pro Tour, Tennis Australia or the players, visit www.tennis.com.au. For more information on the ITF Pro circuit visit www.itftennis.com.