27 Jan 2017

Young NZ tennis player makes Australian Open final

8:25 am on 27 January 2017

Young Hawke's Bay tennis player Finn Reynolds and his partner have made the boys doubles final at the Australian Open in Melbourne.

Finn Reynolds and his partner Durate Vale of Portugal, made the boys doubles final at the Australian Open in Melbourne. 2017

Finn Reynolds and his partner Durate Vale of Portugal, have made the boys doubles final at the Australian Open in Melbourne. Photo: Greg Mollar, Tennis NZ

Reynolds and Durate Vale of Portugal, an unseeded scratch pairing, beat top seeds Toru Horie (Japan) and Vibing Wu (China) in two tie-breaker sets in the semi-finals.

What made the win all the more satisfying was that they were down 1-5 on the scoreboard in the first set but staged a remarkable comeback against their top opposition.

Now they are in the Australian Open Boys Doubles final, the first New Zealand player to be in a Junior Boys Grand Slam final since Wimbledon 1993 when Steven Downs and James Greenhalgh combined together to win the title.

For the left-handed 17-year-old Kiwi making the final has been more than a pleasant surprise.

"It's a great feeling. I never would have imagined it before the tournament I mean we'd never played before the tournament but things have worked out perfectly. It was a really cool experience on that court, a big crowd. After the match I looked around and thought wow," said Reynolds.

"To win 7-6 7-6 we just played solid tiebreaks and just lifted it up and they made a couple of errors that was the difference. Whoever we play it's not going to be easy. We just have to keep doing what we're doing and have fun out there."

For the more experienced and higher ranked Vale the whole tournament has been a shock as he was not sure about his partner to start with.

"I was nervous to be honest to play with a guy with a lower ranking. Today I'm supposed to step up but during the first set he came through and he was the one who got us there today... it was so good. We're not only playing well, but we're having fun together," said Vale.

They now face fourth seeds Yu Hsiou Hus (Taipei) and Lingxi Zhao (China) for the title.