Tennis: Nielsen, Jones through

GD Jones and Mark Nielsen earned main draw wildcards for the Heineken Open after both scored three-set wins on the final day of the six-man round-robin playoffs yesterday.

The event couldn't have been staged any better with the winners of the wildcards still undecided on the final day and the two feature matches at the Remuera Rackets Club each running to three sets.

Jones was always the frontrunner and eventually ended up with a four win, one loss record ahead of No. 1 Nielsen who finished on three wins and two losses.

Day five started with 18-year-old William Ward needing to defeat Dan King-Turner to stay in contention. However, King-Turner went out of the tournament on a high and scored a three-set victory over Ward, putting the teenager out of the race for a main draw place.

Nielsen and Adam Thompson then played with each knowing they needed a win and to also ignore the result of the match between Jones and Rubin Statham.

Nielsen won the first set 6-1 but Thompson steadied in the second to fight back and win it 6-3.

Nielsen, 27, then upped the tempo and showed just how much he wanted to be in the Open by winning the final set without dropping a game for a 6-1, 3-6, 6-0 victory.

But for Nielsen to make the top two and earn entry to the Open, where a guaranteed US$3600 ($5000) in prizemoney and five ranking points are up for grabs, he still needed Jones to beat Statham.

Jones obliged, but only just.

He dropped the first set 2-6 as Statham, 17, again proved to be a consistent opponent never willing to let a point go.

Jones fought back in the second, winning 6-4. The third set went game-for-game until Statham broke a string and had no more racquets remaining.

He either had to default or find another racquet quickly. A replacement was borrowed from a woman in the crowd and he continued. Surprisingly he won another game but eventually lost the match 7-5 in third set.

Statham will still gain a wildcard into the Open qualifying, along with King-Turner, Ward and Thompson.

Ward is expected to go to Baylor College in the United States in January and the other three will play the two US$15,000 Futures events in Hamilton and North Harbour in February.

It will be Jones' first time in the main draw of the Open while Nielsen fronts up for his seventh time.

The New Zealand No. 1 has twice made it through to the second round.