16 Jan 2010

New Zealander through to Heineken Open finals

6:39 am on 16 January 2010

There'll be a New Zealander in action on finals day at the Heineken tennis Open in Auckland with Wairarapa's Marcus Daniell reaching the doubles final with Horia Tecau of Romania.

It's the first time a New Zealand player's made a final in Auckland since Brett Steven won the doubles with the American Pat Galbraith in 1998.

Sweden's Johan Brunstrom and Jean-Julian Rojer from the Netherlands Antilles won the first set of the semi-final 6-3 but Daniel and Tecau took the second 7-6 in a tiebreak, forcing the match to a first to 10 super tiebreak.

They were trailing 3-6 but levelled at 6-6 and went on to win 10-8, receiving a standing ovation.

After winning the quarter-final by exactly the same margin, Daniell says he's never played in an atmosphere like it and although he looked calm he wasn't.

Daniell and Tecau will play the Brazilians Marcello Melo and Bruno Soares first up today, barring poor weather - in which case the singles final will begin proceedings.