17 Dec 2016

Lewis and Sitak crowned NZ tennis champions

8:30 pm on 17 December 2016

Jade Lewis has won the women's title at the New Zealand tennis championships by beating Paige Hourigan in three sets today in Auckland.

Jade Lewis with the NZ singles trophy.

Jade Lewis with the NZ singles trophy. Photo: Photosport

The daughter of Davis Cup player David and niece of the 1983 Wimbledon finalist Chris, Jade lost the first set 5-7 before comfortably clinching the next two 6-3 6-1.

"In the first set I kept on hitting soft and short on big points," said Jade after receiving the trophy for the first time.

"The third set she made a lot of mistakes and I focused on trying to keep the ball on court as much as I could 'cause she was missing. She wasn't really in it that much."

One day short of her 18th birthday, Jade played down the inevitable comparison to her famous relatives.

"I won it. It wasn't my dad winning it or my uncle winning it. Yeah, they've won it and my dad has helped me through every practice session, but I was on the court, I was doing it," she said.

In the men's final, Artem Sitak claimed his third national title after defeating Finn Tearney 6-2 6-0.

- RNZ