There are plenty of opportunities for local players on day one of the Hamilton leg of the ASB Pro Circuit tennis Futures with five Kiwis lining up for first round singles matches.
In the men’s US$15,000 draw teenager Finn Tearney from Wellington has a tough task to add to his tally of four points for a ranking of 1444. Tearney faces Young-Jun Kim of Korea who is ranked at 587.
Another teenager from the lower North Island to take the court is Marcus Daniell. Ranked at 822 Daniell from the Wairarapa plays Australian qualifier Krishanath Balakrishnan in the first round on the first day of main draw play.
Other notable matches include top seed and world No193 Carsten Ball from Australia who plays Korea’s Hyun-Woo Nam. Ball has a huge serve and has been a doubles winner for Australia in its last two Davis Cup ties. His father was also a Davis Cup player for Australia.
Playing on day one in the US$10,000 women’s singles draw is the powerful Kairangi Vano from Auckland against qualifier Jie Hao of China while Di Hollands will hope to continue her form of late with a clash against Australian Alenka Hubacek who is ranked at 545.
Also on court is Leela Beattie from Canterbury who has a tough first up match as a wildcard in the main draw, she plays eighth seeded Ayaka Maekawa(Japan) who is ranked at 415.
A name to watch for in the main draw as a wildcard is Hamilton born, 15-year-old Katherine Westbury who is currently based in Sydney. She has already made the quarters as a qualifier of one Futures event and will play a qualifier on Wednesday.
In the men’s draw Kiwi No1 Rubin Statham will play the third ranked Kiwi, GD Jones on Wednesday while Davis Cup team member, Adam Thompson will take on Barbados player Haydn Lewis, Oliver Statham plays second seed Tatsuma Ito(Japan) and Dan King-Turner is draw against a qualifier.
A full round of men’s and women’s doubles will also be played with singles matches starting from 10am at the ASB Waikato Tennis Centre
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