Another quality field has been confirmed for the 2006 Heineken Open featuring the Sovereign singles and doubles titles with the full player list announced to

Sacha Jones lost 6-4 7-5 to Russian qualifier Katie Rybakova in first round action at the Eddie Herr International in Florida.  The tournament is the traditional warm-up event prior to the Orange Bowl.

It wasn’t easy but Parnell managed to regain the prized women’s Caro Bowl torphy having to fight hard and use all of their experience against their teenage opponents from Kohimarama.

In front of a crowd of 200 plus spectators in light drizzle, world-ranked junior Kairangi Vano took the game to Pavlina Nola in the top singles.  However, it was Nola who came away the victor but it was a three set match in which Vano showed nplenty of improvements from recent weeks.

At No 2, sister Varoma Vano scored an upset win over Niki Tippins in three sets to even up the overall score.  Siobhan Cavan grabbed the second upset for Kohimarama with victory over Rachel Clark but Amanda Trail won in straight sets over Hannah Fick at four.

In the doubles, Nola and Tippins were too strong in the top match against Kairangi Vano and Melissa O’Keeffe while Clark and Trail retired in the third set of their match against Varoma Vano and Cavan with a countback giving the result to Parnell.

Meanwhile the men’s final will be a reply of last season with defending champs West End staging an escape against Blockhouse Bay indoors to win 4 – 2 and now face Parnell at Parnell on Friday night.   Parnell beat Pompallier on a set countback, 7 – 6 in their semi final after earlier in the season scoring a much easier ein over the same side.

James Shortall won the top singles for Pompallier against Adam Thompson but Bernard Parun and Matt Prentice captured the two and three singles and Pavil Solil managed a set in his loss to adam McNeil.  The doubles were split giving Parnell the win.

Blockhouse Bay appeared to have the advantage midway through the singles against West End with Danny Willman and Andrew turner winning their singles in staright sets while Mark Neilson beat Dan King-Turner for West End.  However, Teo Susnjak somehow won with an injured arm against Nick Turner in three sets.  Blockhouse Bay needed to win one of the doubles but dropped both matches to miss out on the final.

Womens Final:
Parnell 3 (8 sets) Kohimarama 3 (7 sets)

Pavlina Nola bt Kairangi Vano 6-4 6-4 6-3
Niki Tippins lt Varoma Vano 6-4 6-7 4-6
Rachel Clark lt Siobhan Cavan 3-6 5-7
Amanda Trail bt Hannah Fick 6-0 6-1
P Nola/N Tippins bt K Vano/M O’Keeffe 6-2 6-0
A Trail/R Clark lt V Vano/ S Cavan 6-4 4-6 1-3 retired

Oliver Statham lost 6-1 6-1 to James Cerretani (USA)in the first round of the main draw singles at the US$15000 Men’s Futures tournament at Barmera, Australia.  Both players had won through the qualifying event earlier in the week.

Tracey O’Connor was beaten 6-1 6-3 in the final round of qualifying by Melanie South (GBR) at the Kia International in Mt. Gambier, Australia.  O’Connor lost to the same opponent at a tour stop last week.

ASB Classic 2006 Player Entry List: More…

History could be awaiting one of the five top-50 ranked Russian players who are confirmed for January’s 2006 ASB Classic featuring the Sovereign singles and doubles.With one of the best fields ever and an initial entry list which features all eight seeds inside the top 40 WTA rankings there’s so much talent within the field that a winner is hard to pick.
Four Russians will be seeded and one other will be just outside the seedings. Currently there are eleven Russians in the top-50 and it is significant that five of them are coming to Auckland. They are likely to be amongst the crowd favourites to win the title which would be a first as no Russian has ever won the title in Auckland.  Leila Meskhi won representing the Soviet Union in 1990, but is regarded as a Georgian. More…