Ben McLachlan, a product of the Queenstown production line under Lan Bale, holds the remaining southern hopes as he moved into the semifinal with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Wesley Whitehouse in the national tennis championships at Albany yesterday.
McLachlan, now a touring professional after graduating from the University of California (Berkeley), was too strong for a gradually fading Whitehouse, who is now in the twilight of his career after winning the Wimbledon junior title 20 years ago, and is now better known as the coach of Marina Erakovic.
McLachlan now meets Artem Sitak, a highly ranked doubles specialist after Sitak beat a recent import to New Zealand, Victor Romero, 7-5, 6-4.
McLachlan’s brother Riki, also a graduate from Berkeley, and now coaching in Queenstown, went down to top seed Finn Tearney 2-6, 4-6, and Tearney now plays wildcard Zach Whaanga.
Whaanga is back from an American college and impressed with inventive shots and a seemingly casual approach to counter the windy conditions in beating promising junior Finn Reynolds 5-7, 6-1, 6-4.
Ben McLachlan, partnered by Tearney, kept alive hopes of direct entry to the ASB Classic when they beat Whitehouse and national junior champion Ajeet Rai 6-3, 6-4 in a doubles semifinal. Daniell and Sitak showed the class that has won them several ATP tour titles, beating Riki McLachlan and Reynolds 6-1, 6-0 in the other.
Otago’s involvement ended when Mitchell Sizemore bowed out in straight sets to Isaac Becroft, while Aaron Hicks lost to Chris Zhang in a third set tiebreak in the consolation event. Zhang went on to clinch the consolation final.
Play for the final two days moves to the ASB tennis centre in Auckland to assist television coverage and crowd facilities.
