New Zealand players will have to contend with their opponents and some potentially inclement weather at week three of the Futures international tennis events which starts at Wellington’s Renouf Tennis Centre tomorrow (Tuesday).
With the final week of the ASB Pro Circuit having prizemoney of US$15,000 for the men’s draw and US$10,000 for the women there’s plenty riding on the tournaments, including local players aiming for a title and ATP and WTA world ranking points.
In the men’s tournament Kiwi No2 Dan King-Turner plays a qualifier in the first round with a likely second round clash against eighth seed Rameez Junaid(Australia) who he beat in the quarters at Hamilton and was earlier a title winner at North Harbour
One Kiwi is guaranteed to make the second round of the singles as New Zealand No1 Rubin Statham takes on fellow Davis Cup team member Adam Thompson while another Davis Cup player,
GD Jones faces Hamilton runner up Tatsuma Ito of Japan who defeated four Kiwis in a row last week.
Nineteen-year-old Marcus Daniell, from the Wairarapa has a tough draw as he will be up against top seed, Hamilton winner and world No193 Carsten Ball of Australia in the first round.
The other locals in the men’s singles are wildcards, Oliver Statham against American Kaes Van’t Hof and Australian based Cantab, Logan MacKenzie, 18 has his chance for his first ATP ranking point when he comes up against a qualifier in the first round.
In the women’s draw Canterbury 15-year-old Leela Beattie plays a qualifier in her first round match while New Zealand national champion Di Hollands who this week has regained a WTA ranking - 802 has the tough task of playing fifth seed Kyung-Yee Chae of Korea who is ranked at 369.
Powerful Kairangi Vano who was a finalist in Wellington two years ago will be looking for form when she plays Australian Alenka Hubacek while Kiwi-born, but overseas-based Katherine Westbury, 16 plays eighth seed Nudnida Luangnam in her first round encounter.
In final round qualifying singles matches Kiwi Chelsea Te Tai was beaten by Japan’s Saikiko Shimizu ranked inside the top-800 in the world 6-1 6-2 with Canterbury’s Barrett Franks defeated in the men’s final round by big-hitting Joel Lindner of Australia 6-3 6-2.
Day one matches commence at 10am
No comments:
Post a Comment