By Dennis Radford

Ben McLachlan (Queenstown) is through to the doubles final of an ITF Grade 1 junior tournament in Australia. He and Irish partner Sam Barry have caused a series of upsets in a star-studded international field in the last event before the Australian Junior Open next week.After beating the fifth seeds, they secured a quarterfinal win over the world top-seeded German pair 20-18 in a third set tie-break and they will now play an Australian team in the final.

In the singles, McLachlan beat ninth seed Arthur de Greef (Belgium) 4-6, 7-6, 7-5 before losing in three sets to a Russian. The hard matchplay, which follows a boot camp for leading juniors conducted by coach Lan Bale in Queenstown, should have McLachlan peaking for the junior Grand Slam event. An unprecedented nine Kiwis, six boys and three girls, have gained entry to the Australian Junior Open.

Tennis NZ report here

Published Otago Daily Times 21/01/10