Tennis: Kiwis given four wildcards

Shona Lee

Four New Zealanders have been awarded wildcards into the singles qualifying at the 2006 ASB Classic.

Sacha Jones, 15, Kairangi Vano, 16 and Shona Lee, 17, all get their first chance in the qualifying while 23-year-old Tracey O'Connor, the highest ranked of the wildcards at 672 on the WTA rankings, has also secured a qualifying wildcard.

Canterbury player Ellen Barry, 16 who is ranked at 26 in the world juniors was offered a position in the qualifying but is recovering from an injury.

Another New Zealander, Paula Marama, 21, of Wellington, will play in the doubles qualifying on a wildcard.

Jones has an ITF junior ranking of 68 and became the youngest New Zealander ever to gain a WTA senior ranking at age 14. She is 818 in the world on the WTA rankings.

Lee is ranked at 717 while Vano has yet to gain a WTA rank but looks on target to make a good impression in 2006 after beating Lee in the final of the New Zealand 18s tournament and winning two ITF junior titles.

Qualifying starts on Saturday December 31 and continues Sunday January 1.

Meanwhile, it's a two-horse race - with Adam Thompson the favourite and Dan King-Turner the outsider - going into the final day of the Heineken Open wildcard playoffs.

Thompson scored his second win of the four-player tournament by beating Rubin Statham in two tiebreaks yesterday.

The victory puts Thompson, 23, in the lead position for the valuable dollar prize, prestige and ranking points in the January 9-14 tournament.

He has 14 points going into the final round match against William Ward who has yet to register a win.

If Thompson wins over Ward he guarantees himself a place in the Open. If Thompson loses and King-Turner on 11 points wins over Statham then King-Turner goes through to the Heineken Open main draw. A loss by both players will see Thompson gain the wildcard.