Hourigan earns final fling

‘‘I’m so happy that I get to do it with Taylor. Hopefully we can go out there and play some really good tennis.’’

Hourigan and Townsend will play against Sofia Kenin from America and Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard in the final at 5pm today.

Meanwhile, in the qualifying for the men’s Classic, Ajeet Rai came close to picking up a huge win, but went down 3-6 7-6 6-4 to Roberto Marcora, of Italy.

Rai doesn’t have an ATP ranking while Marcora is at 290 and only got to play in the tournament because Cameron Norrie got bumped up to the main draw by being given a wildcard.

While it will go down as a good performance from the New Zealand No 2, it could also been seen as a missed opportunity as the match was certainly within his grasp in the second set.

Having won the first set, Rai got a break in the sixth game of the next to be up 4-2. However, Marcora then won three games in a row. But Rai then improved his serve and the set went to a tiebreak.

Rai was up 4-2 at the change of ends, but couldn’t keep his lead and eventually lost it 7-5. The Italian got a break in the first game of the deciding set, which Rai couldn’t claw back.

Earlier, New Zealander Finn Tearney went down 6-3 6-4 to Thomas Fabiano, of Italy.

The draw for the doubles was released yesterday and is without doubt the best doubles draw in the history of the Classic.

There is strong Kiwi interest throughout, especially in the match between Artem Sitak and his American partner Austin Krajicek, who’ll play Rai and George Stoupe.

The third seeds, Michael Venus and Raven Klaasen, South Africa, will be against Daniel Inglot, of Britain, and Franko Skugorfrom, of Croatia.

Marcus Daniel and the Netherlands’ Wesley Koolhof are up against Pablo Cuevas, of Uruguay, and the Argentinian Leonardo Mayer.

Rubin Statham and Aucklandraised Cameron Norrie are against Guido Pella, of Argentina, and Joao Sousa, of Portugal.