24 January 2013 | Tennis West

Thursday night will see the top two men’s and women’s teams play off for the inaugural Asia-Pacific Tennis League title.

On Wednesday, the Liston Seagulls led by Sam Groth disposed of the Brisbane Chargers 4-0 in the first semifinal.

The much anticipated match between Sam Groth (Seagulls) and John Millman (Chargers) lived up to the hype with Millman having two match points before going down 4-0 in the third set to Groth.

In the other semifinal, the ATP Sydney team defeated the New Zealand Kauris 4-2 in an entertaining affair.

ATP Sydney took three of the four singles with the only loss occurring when Greg Jones (Sydney) went down 4-0, 4-2 and 4-3 to experienced New Zealander Mike Venus.

On the women’s side, the Asia Pacific Institute Steelers defeated the New Zealand Tuis 4-2 with the Steelers making a clean sweep of the singles.

Although the Tuis lost to the highly-fancied Steelers 4-2, three of the four singles matches went to three sets with the Steeler’s experience proving the difference.

In the other women’s semifinal, the Flagstaff Freighters proved too strong for the WA Giants with the Freighters taking the match 4-2.  In the match of the night, Brooke Rischbieth defeated Kate O’Shea after winning the deciding point at 4-4 in the third set tiebreaker.

Rishbeith’s singles win proved the difference in a match that could have gone anyway.

Tomorrow’s men’s final, which will be played at 5pm, will see the Liston Seagulls (Vic) take on the ATP Sydney (NSW) team for the men while for the women, the Flagstaff Freighters (SA) line up against the Asia Pacific Institute Steelers (NSW).

A full list of results including individual matches from today can be found here.

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