World Top 50 Ranked Tennis Set For Wellington

Professional tennis returns to Wellington  with the confirmation of the player fields for the Configure Express Pro US$25,000 women’s Challenger tournament and the US$15,000 men’s Futures to be held November 16 to 21 at the Renouf Tennis Centre.

It’s rare that a player ranked in the world’s top 50 graces the courts in Wellington, but listed on the women’s entries is Slovak-born, Australian Jarmila Groth who has current rank of 43 in the world.

Groth, 23 won the WTA singles title at Guaangzhou in China earlier this year and reached the fourth round singles at both the French Open and Wimbledon plus had a semifinal finish at the WTA event in Istanbul and made the quarterfinals at Estoril WTA tournament in Portugal.

She is married to Australian men’s player, Sam Groth ranked 351 who will be taking part in the men’s Futures tournament on at the same time. It will be a rare chance for the couple to compete in the same city at the same time.

Also included in the women’s field is the talented and powerful Australian, Sally Peers. The 19-year-old Peers from Melbourne is on the rise ranking wise up to 157 after a year in which she won a US$25,000 event in Ipswich, Australia and was a beaten finalist in two others. She also qualified at the US Open and made the second round before losing to the eventual champion, Kim Clijsters.

And what of the Kiwis? New Zealand No1 Sacha Jones has entered the tournament, which will be her first in her home country since the ASB Classic in 2008. Jones has a current ranking of 268 in the world, but has had a couple of years where she has been plagued by injuries, although she still managed to win the singles title at the US$25,000 Challenger at Alice Springs a few months ago.

Marina Erakovic may also make a surprise appearance into the Configure Express Pro tournament. Erakovic has been ranked as high as No49 in the world and is fighting her way back to full fitness after various injuries.

The projected cut-off for direct entry for the women’s main draw is Italian Giulia Gatto-Monticone at 271st.

In the men’s Futures event the entry list is headed by fiery Australian Brydan Klein at 247 in the world. New Kiwi star, Michael Venus is likely to be third seed with a ranking of 304 after going from no ranking 12 months ago. Another Kiwi Davis Cup player Rubin Statham is also in the main draw, while the main draw cut off is likely to be  Australian Dane Propoggia at 604.

Players have one week in which to reconfirm their entries.

“This is a very impressive line-up of entries for the events,” says Tracy Hall, Events and Operations Manager at Tennis New Zealand.

“With the prize money being increased to US$25,000 for the women, the Configure Express Pro will provide the best-quality tennis seen in Wellington for some time. The standard of the tournaments will really give people in the Capital some great sport to watch. It will be great to see New Zealand’s own Sacha Jones and Michael Venus compete against Jarmila Groth and Brydan Klein and others.”

The Configure Express Pro and the men’s Futures are part of an Australasian circuit of tournaments in the cut-throat world of professional tennis. A number of players from New Zealand will be aiming to achieve impressive results to force their claims for wildcards into the 2011 ASB Classic and Heineken Open in Auckland as well as earn WTA and ATP international ranking points.