One of the rising stars of world tennis and a real hero in his own country has been granted a main draw wildcard to the 2009 Heineken Open featuring the Sovereign Singles and Doubles.
Japan’s Kei Nishikori the world’s 63rd ranked player has been confirmed as wildcard for the tournament which starts Monday 12 January at the ASB Tennis Centre.
Nishikori, aged 18 is highly regarded around the world and has already proved his worth with an ATP tournament title to his credit.
He won the ATP event at Delray Beach coming through qualifying and winning eight successive matches taking out world No12 James Blake in the final in three sets.
After the title triumph his ranking improved from 244 to 131.
His win meant he was the first Japanese titlist since Shuzo Matsuoka in Seoul in April 1992. At 18 years, 1 month, 19 days old he was also the youngest player to win an ATP title since Lleyton Hewitt (16 years, 10 months, 18 days) in Adelaide on January 11, 1998.
At the 2008 US Open he reached the fourth round defeating Juan Monaco in his opening match and world No4 David Ferrer 7-5 in the fifth set in an enthralling contest in just under four hours in the third round.
Finally Nishikori was beaten in the last 16 by Juan Martin del Potro.
There was also a win in the big Bermuda Challenger where he defeated three top-100 players including Ernests Gulbis with a three set victory over Viktor Troicki in the final.
He finished off the year with a semifinal run at Stockholm.
Overall the Shimane teenager moved up 223 ranking spots to finish as the youngest player in the year-end top 100. He also became the first Japanese player to finish in the top-100 since Matsuoka in 1995.
“He is an 18-year-old who has a title and made the fourth round of a Grand Slam. It’s very exciting to have a player like him in the field, especially since he is rated so highly by players and tennis officials around the world as someone who could be in the top-20 by the end of 2009.
Nishikori will bring added energy and enthusiasm to Heineken Open which fans will love. He has a style of play which is exciting and has beaten a number of highly ranked players,” says Heineken Open Tournament Director, Richard Palmer.
In 2007 Nishikori had qualified at a number of ATP events including Indianapolis where won three matches to make the main draw and then won his way into the quarterfinals.
Nishikori moved from Shimane, Japan to the United States at the age of 14 to live and train at the Bollettieri Academy in Florida and didn’t speak a word of English when he arrived.
He works with travelling coach, Glenn Weiner who was a quarterfinalist at the Heineken Open in 2001.
One Heineken Open main draw wildcard has previously been awarded to Kiwi No1 Rubin Statham while the top seeds for the tournament are Argentine Juan Martin del Potro at No9 followed by former champion David Ferrer of Spain at 12.
Sweden’s Robin Soderling will be the third seed with a ranking of 17 while another Spaniard, Nicolas Almagro rounds out the top four seeds at No18 in the world.
The Heineken Open featuring the Sovereign Singles and Doubles will be held at the ASB Tennis Centre, January 12-17, 2009 with the first two days of qualifying January 10-11, 2009 at the Albany Tennis Park, Oteha Valley Road, Albany starting at 10am each day.
The 2009 tournament will feature live scoring as well as live streaming of play and audio podcasts.
www.heinekenopen.co.nz
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