A week after reaching the National 16 Girls Singles final, Tanya Samodelok lived up to her top billing to win the National 14 Girl’s Singles title in Christchurch.  Samodelok was forced to work reasonably hard in her matches throughout the tournament and the final against Briar Preston was a similar story.  Tanya, who is only eleven years of age, won the first set in a tie-breaker before running away with the second set and the national title.

The New Zealand Fed Cup team has been relegated to Asia/Oceania Group 2 after losing a play-off match to Uzbekistan in Korea yesterday.  Despite the absence of Uzbekistan’s highest ranked player, Varvara Lepchecko, New Zealand were beaten 2-1 in a hard fought encounter.  Leanne Baker lost 6-3 7-5 to Iroda Tulyaganova before Marina Erakovic glued New Zealand’s chances together with a 7-5 6-1 win over Akgul Amanmuradova.  In the deciding doubles match, New Zealand’s relegation fate was sealed when Erakovic/Baker lost 6-4 7-4 to Amanmuradova/Tulyaganova.  Next year New Zealand will line up against the likes of Singapore, Syria, Jordan, Iran, Malaysia and Turkmenistan in a bid to regain Group 1 status.

Tournament organisers of the ASB Classic are overjoyed at the results of a review process of the 2006 event which rates it as the most successful to date in its 21 year history. The review was conducted by Auckland Tennis in tandem with the WTA Tour, the global body for women’s tennis. Information was drawn from crowd attendance statistics, television viewing figures and levels of media coverage while the WTA Tour also independently assessed tournament facilities and organisation and sought player’s feedback on their week in Auckland. More…

The New Zealand Fed Cup team lost its final pool match 2-1 to India at the Asia/Oceania Group 1 tournament in Korea earlier today.  Kairangi Vano lost 6-1 6-3 to Shikha Uberoi in the number two singles match while Ellen Barry went down 6-2 6-4 to Indian superstar Sania Mirza.  Marina Erakovic and Leanne Baker won their doubles 4-6 6-0 6-1 against Bhambri/Lakhani.  The fourth seeded New Zealand team finished third in their pool, but due to an amended format, the team must now play-off against Uzbekistan tomorrow to retain Group 1 status in 2007.  A loss will mean relegation to Group 2.  Uzbekistan’s team is led by A. Amanmuradova, currently ranked inside the WTA top 200, and former top twenty player Iroda Tulyaganova.  The other relegation match is between Korea and the Philippines.  A promotion play-off will be played tomorrow between the two top teams, Australia and India, for the right to challenge for World Group 2 status later this year.

Eleven year old Tanya Samodelok reached the final of the National 16 Girl’s Singles before losing to Amelia Harris 7-5 6-2.  As a non-citizen Samodelok was only allowed entry into the tournament after a late policy u-turn by the national body.  Making the most of the opportunity, Tanya beat second seed Sarah Henderson in the semi’s and had chances in the first set of the final before Harris took command of the match.  Tanya will attempt to win the 14 Nationals starting in Christchuch today.  North Harbour’s Dan Davies, who trains in Auckland, did well to reach the semis of the Boy’s 16 Singles before losing to Michael Pigou.  At the 12’s Nationals in Wellington, Monica Chen reached the semi-finals of the singles and won the doubles.

Abigail Guthrie, opting for tougher competition at the 16’s Australian Claycourt Champs instead of playing the NZ Nationals, got more than she bargained for by drawing top seed Kate Antosik in the first round.  Guthrie lost the first round encounter 6-4 6-4.

A 2-0 loss to Chinese Taipei in the opening tie has put the NZ Fed Cup team out of contention for promotion to World Group Two.  Leanne Baker was easily beaten by Yung-Jan Chan in the first match and was followed by Marina Erakovic who lost 4-6 6-3 6-0 to Su-Wei Hseih in the number one singles.  Later in the day, NZ beat rank outsiders the Philipines 2-0 to secure Asia/Oceania Group One status in 2007.  The New Zealand team play pool favourites India today.