Kiwis Look For Strong Showing In Wellington Internationals
Friday 5 November 2010, 4:49PM
By Tennis New Zealand
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The complete player list for the Configure Express Pro US$25,000 women’s tennis Challenger tournament and the US$15,000 men’s Futures to be held November 16 to 21 at the Renouf Tennis Centre in Wellington has now been confirmed and for the first time since 2005 Marina Erakovic will hit a tennis ball in the Capital in a professional tournament.
She will join Kiwi No1 Sacha Jones who will strangely play in a pro tournament in Wellington for the first time ever. Both players are below their highest rankings and both are aiming to overcome a raft of injuries.
Jones, who will be 20 on Monday is currently playing in a US$25,000 event in Kalgoolie, Australia and has been ranked as high as 157 in the world.
It was uncertain if Erakovic, 22 would play in Wellington, however her official entry has now been received and the player who reached the heady heights of 49 in the world in 2008 will try and get her current ranking of 323 moving in the right direction at the Renouf Tennis Centre.
Meanwhile world No43 Slovak-born, Australian Jarmila Groth reconfirmed her entry and will be able to spend some time with her husband, Sam Groth who is ranked 351 and will play in the men’s Futures event at the same time.
Twenty-three year-old Groth 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.
Others to watch for in the women’s field is the talented and powerful Australian, Sally Peers and Britain’s Melanie South. Peers, 19 is on the rise 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.
There are 11 different nations from as far afield as Peru, Germany, Greece, Israel and Japan represented out of the 18 direct entries in the women’s draw with Israel’s Julia Glushko the last of the direct entries at 351.
In the men’s Futures event the entry list there has been a little bit of movement with Kiwi Davis Cup player and the winner of the doubles title at the 2010 Heineken Open, Marcus Daniell, originally from the Wairarapa now making the main draw entry list.
Daniell has a current singles ranking of 770. He joins new Kiwi star, Michael Venus, the likely third seed with a ranking of 304 after going from no ranking 12 months ago. Kiwi Davis Cup player Rubin Statham is also in the main draw. Russian born, but now Kiwi resident Artem Sitak is in the player list at 328. Top seed will be fiery Australian Brydan Klein ranked at 247.
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.
Configure Express Pro US$25,000 women’s main draw entry list (18 players – with nations listed and world rankings):
Jarmila Groth(AUS) 43, Sally Peers(AUS) 157, Arina Rodionova(RUS) 178, Erika Sema(JPN) 236, Melanie South(GBR) 252, Eirini Georgatou(GRE) 253, Elitsa Kostova(BUL) 258, Sacha Jones(NZL) 268, Kumiko Iijima(JPN) 276, Bianca Botto(PER) 277, Shiho Akita(JPN) 281, Chiaki Okadaue(JPN) 283, Natsumi Hamamura(JPN) 286, Marina Erakovic(NZL) 323, Timea Babos(HUN) 327, Tammi Patterson(AUS) 349, Nicola Geuer(GER) 350, Julia Glushko(ISR) 351
Men’s US$10,000 Futures:
Brydan Klein(AUS) 247, Sebastian Rieschick(GER) 284, Michael Venus(NZL) 304, Artem Sitak(RUS) 328, Dayne Kelly(AUS) 337, Sam Groth(AUS) 351, Colin Ebelthite(AUS) 356, Harri Heliovaara(FIN) 362, Rubin Statham(NZL) 393, Matt Reid(AUS) 415, Dane Propoggia(AUS) 604, Nima Roshan(AUS) 683, Joel Lindner(AUS) 711, Niki TAkuto(JPN) 758, Marcus Daniell(NZL) 770, Riccardo Sinicropi(ITA) 776, Ben Mitchell(AUS) 809, Leon Frost(AUS) 894.