Tennis: Entries dwindle for Open wildcard tourney

It started with nine players, now there are six.

The wildcard tournament to decide which New Zealand players get two Open main draw spots, suffered another setback yesterday when Wellington's Matt Prentice withdrew from the event, which starts at Remuera on Monday.

Prentice's decision follows the retirement of Davis Cup player Simon Rea and the withdrawal of Lee Radovanovich last week.

Radovanovich was pulled out as he has taken a coaching position at Campbells Bay club.

Prentice has stepped down as he has yet to fully commit to playing professionally next year.

New Zealand Tennis chief executive Don Turner said it was likely Prentice would keep playing until the Davis Cup in March then review his future plans.

In addition to the two main draw spots, the other four players will get places in the Heineken Open qualifying draw.

There will still be plenty to play for. A first round loser in the US$404,000 ($566,000) Open pockets five ATP Tour points and US$3650. Qualifiers get nothing unless they make the main draw.

The six still standing are, in order of ATP ranking, North Harbour's Mark Nielsen, Aucklanders Adam Thompson, Rubin Statham, William Ward and GD Jones and Canterbury's Dan King-Turner.

They will play each other in a round robin, with one point per win, finishing on Friday.

In Monday's opening round, Nielsen plays King-Turner, Thompson plays Jones and Statham plays Ward.