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Sports

Levine, Keys Head for Australian Open

Both players dominated in Sunday's finals at the 2011 USTA Australian Open Wild-Card Playoffs held at Peachtree Corners' Racquet Club of the South.

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Floridian Jesse Levine turned in a dominant performance in beating local favorite Robby Ginepri in straight sets Sunday in the finals of the 2011 Kia Motors USTA Australian Open Wild-Card Playoff at .

Levine jumped on the Kennesaw native early, winning the first set 6-0.

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"I was in a zone today," Levine said. "I was just trying to stay with it. After that first set, it was kind of like can I really keep this up."

Not quite. But almost. Levine dominated the second set 6-2 and the third 6-1

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"I wasn't expecting to come out like that," Levine said. "Robby's a great competitor and he's in really, really good shape. I know because I've practiced against him plenty. Honestly, I was just in that zone where everything was kind of going my way "

The victory gives Levine a coveted spot in next month's Australian Open main draw.

Both men coasted to straight set victories in Saturday's semifinals. The 24-year-old Levine, who played at the University of Florida for one year before turning pro, defeated Denis Kudla 7-5, 6-2 in one semifinal. Ginepri beat Rhyne Williams by an identical score in the other.

But on Sunday, it was all Levine. The Boca Raton native clearly demonstrated why he has climbed more than 300 spots in the ATP World Tour rankings since September.

On the other side of the net, it just wasn't Ginepri's day. The 29-year-old player bore no resemblance to the player who rose to a No. 15 world ranking in 2006 and represented the U.S. in the Davis Cup in 2004 and 2009 as he made one unforced error after another, particularly in the final set.

In the women's event, 16-year-old Madison Keys, a rising young star with a bright future, punched her ticket to the Australian Open, coasting to a 5-3, 6-4 straight-set victory over Gail Brodsky of Brooklyn, New York.

Keys was in command the entire match. It got interesting momentarily in second set when Brodsky, trailing four games to two appeared to be on the verge of breaking Keys' serve, but the teen served up back-to-back aces and went on to open up a 5-2 lead.

Still Brodsky battled, holding serve and finally breaking Keys' serve to pull to within 5-4. But it wasn't to be as Keys broke back in the final game to claim the victory.

Keys advanced to the finals by beating No. 2 seed Allison Riske of McMurray, Pa. 3-6, 6-4,6-1.

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