BENDIGO, January 11, 2020
The Apis Canberra International – relocated to Bendigo – singles title will be on the line on Sunday at the Fosterville Gold Tennis Centre. The final will be a battle of the generations with Next Gen rising star Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland set to take on one of the most experienced players on the ATP Tour in Philipp Kohlschreiber from Germany.
Ruusuvuori has been in solid form all week and has claimed the scalps of four seeds, beating Jannik Sinner of Italy, Germany’s Dominik Koepfer, Taro Daniel of Japan and US-American Denis Kudla by the score of 6-0, 7-5 on Saturday. The 20-year-old Finn came into the event off a quality end of the year which saw him win four ATP Challenger titles.
Emil Ruusuvuori cannot be stopped!
The 🇫🇮 is picking up where he left off in 2019, reeling off 10 sets in a row to reach the final in Bendigo. pic.twitter.com/J1qTfWPozr
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) January 11, 2020
At 16 years his senior, Kohlschreiber will be drawing upon his experience in the final which includes eight ATP Tour titles, 450 ATP Tour victories and 25 top 10 wins. The 36-year-old German has also been impressive this week, and won his quarterfinal over No. 5 seed Steve Johnson from the United States on Saturday morning after it was held over from Friday at 7-6 2-2. He then returned to the court in the afternoon to post a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 win over No. 14 seed Evgeny Donskoy of Russia.
Luke Saville and Max Purcell captured the doubles title, winning 7-6(3), 7-6(3) against third seeds Jonathan Elrich from Israel and Andrei Vasilevski of Belarus. After the Aussies claimed the first set in tiebreak, Elrich and Vasilevski went up 5-2 in the second set, before Saville and Purcell stormed back to force a tiebreak. The Aussies secured the breaker 7-3 to win the title after one hour and 37 minutes.
It was the eighth ATP Challenger title the pairing have collected since teaming up in 2019 with Purcell saying they have formed a strong partnership.
“We have been in a team together now for almost a year and I think it’s a Challenger level a lot of the guys mix up partners but we stick with each other. We know our game so well and pick each other up on the tennis court. We complement each other and we never get down. We find our chances and we take them.”
Sunday’s singles final will start not before 1 pm local time.
The Bendigo Challenger will also kick off on Sunday with the ATP Challeger 80 event set to get underway. Top seed Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia was a late withdrawal after progressing to the semifinals of the Qatar Exxon Mobil Open.
Aces for Bushfire Relief
Every ace served during the Apis Canberra International (Bendigo) will see $100 being donated to the Australian Red Cross bushfire disaster relief and recovery.
Saturday 11 January 2020 Total – 79 aces
Apis Canberra International Overall Total – 979 aces
Donations can be directed to the Australian Red Cross bushfire disaster relief and recovery efforts here.
