Unseeded, and match points down in his first round encounter on Monday morning, Power has gone from strength to strength to overcome a string of highly-ranked opponents through the tournament.
Power suffered a debilitating wrist injury just before last year’s Perth Australian University Games and missed most of the 1/1 Badge season during first semester.
His run this week is his first tournament back since last year’s Open. He had only made the decision to enter the event at the last minute, hoping for some matchplay to prepare for AUGs next week.
Following his 6-1 7-5 semi-final victory over James Queenan, Power attributed the win to “luck”: “I was up 6-1 5-1 but then he saved six match points. I thought I was gone.”
Power’s quarter-final match against No.12 seed Miladin Tepsic had to be rescheduled to an earlier timeslot when the St Andrews Rawson Cup stalwart realised that he had a two-hour Criminal Law exam at 11am.
“The exam went OK too,” Power joked, just before heading back onto court for the doubles quarter-final.
In other matches, a spate of three-set marathons sees No.1 seed Abbie Myers through to the women’s singles final against Victorian youngster Ashleigh Cappanolo.
The No.2 seed Ethan Coker downed
Power and Chris Peters moved into the men’s doubles semi-final with another match tie-break thriller.
Finals action kicks off today at Manning with Power v Coker at 10am.
