Tennis: Top Kiwis bag Auckland wildcards

Sacha Jones will return to the ASB Classic and Michael Venus will debut at the Heineken Open. Photo / Dean Purcell

New Zealand's top two tennis players have been handed a rare opportunity to play in a world tour event with wildcards into the country's premier tournaments next month.

Women's No 1 Sacha Jones and men's No 1 Michael Venus have gained wildcard entries into the main draws of the ASB Classic and Heineken Open respectively.

It will be 23-year-old Venus' first time at the Heineken Open after he climbed nearly 300 places in the rankings this year.

He started the year at around 600 but quickly rose after a couple of strong results on the Challenger circuit, including a final appearance at the Karashi Challenger in Uzbekistan.

He was eventually felled by Slovenian Blaz Kavcic in two tie breaks.

By making the final, Venus became the first Kiwi to feature in a title play-off in a Challenger event in more than 10 years.

Venus, who grew up in Auckland but moved to the United States when he was 15 to further his tennis career, was excited about the prospect of playing at home. But he is well aware of the pressure he will be under as the lone Kiwi in the men's draw.

"This is one of the biggest opportunities of my career and being able to do it at home here in front of friends and family, I can't ask for a better start to the year.

"I guess it is pressure, but it's all in how you deal with it. I don't get many opportunities to play at home so I'm looking forward to it," Venus said.

It will be Jones' second appearance at the ASB Classic. She debuted at the tournament in 2008 but injury and training commitments have kept her from returning until now.

After a frustrating 2010 season marred by injury, Jones is delighted to be handed another opportunity. The 20-year-old has played just a dozen tournaments over the past 12 months due to injuries - the most serious of which were two stress fractures to her ribs and torn abdominal muscles.

Now that she is fighting fit, Jones can't wait to hit the court.

"I'm feeling really good actually, which is nice after having eight months of injury this year; it's such a great feeling to be out there and injury-free."

Jones will likely be joined by a Kiwi rival in the main draw with organisers expected to give the second wildcard to Marina Erakovic, who has also struggled with injury this year.

There's one wildcard remaining for the men's draw but tournament director Richard Palmer plans to keep it up his sleeve until the last minute.

He is keeping his options open in the event a top player is knocked out in one of the warm-up tournaments in Chennai and Brisbane and decides they need more match play.

"We've been talking to a few people and let them know the option is there if they need it," said Palmer.