6 December 2013 | Tennis West

The Wembley Downs Wizards turned their racquets into wands on the weekend to take the honours in the final of the ATL WA Conference.

In their round 3 battle with the Peppermint Grove Magpies, the Wizards won 5 rubbers to 1, giving only a doubles rubber to the Magpies. A week later, the same teams used different line-ups allowing Troy Hargreaves to claim a singles rubber against Indian Fariz Mohammed in 3 sets. The winning result of 4-9-42 to 2-4-32 qualifies them for the ATL Play-offs at Melbourne Park on January 20 and 21.

After the first two rubbers, Andrew Roberts had beaten Brad Dyer 4-3, 4-0, and Fariz had lost to Hargreaves, leaving the Wizards ahead by one set only.  A power match between Adam Carey and Miles Armstrong saw the Wizards gain another rubber 4-2, 4-3. Zach Itzstein overcame Grant Silcock for the same scoreline and the Wizards were in a winning position. This allowed youngster Jack Lyttle the chance to play doubles with Brenton Bacon and become more familiar with the fast format, losing 4-2, 4-1 to the experienced Dyer,/Armstrong pair. The last doubles went to Mohammed and Fariz 4-1, 4-0 against Hargreaves and Silcock.

The Wizards will meet four other Conference Champions and teams from each of Japan, Korea and Oceania during the Australian Open in Melbourne.

The Cheetahs, who beat the Wizards in round 2, won the third-versus-fourth playoff 3-8-45 to 3-7-40 over Higgins Magic.

The Asia-Pacific tennis league brings $350,000 in total prize money to players and clubs in Australia, with the conferences earning $100,000, plus $140,000 in player payments. During the play-offs, teams will vie for a share of $110,000. In addition, a club in each conference, will be awarded a “Places to Play” Community Spirit Award to the value of $5,000, for the best support of the ATL in their conference. 53 teams have competed in the conferences and they have 3,500+ friends, fans or followers on social media.