Classic wildcards in demand
THE success of Michael Venus and New Zealand’s other two doubles players has caused a conundrum for this summer’s ASB Classic and New Zealand championships.
In recent years the winner of the men’s singles and doubles events at the New Zealand championships, which takes place in December, have been guaranteed main draw wildcards for the Classic.
It was a good way to reward the winners of the country’s biggest domestic competition and give the top players an added reason to enter it.
Tennis NZ has been able to secure live TV coverage for the semifinals and finals and the tournament now has a presence on the New Zealand sporting landscape each December.
However, there have been issues. This year Rubin Statham, the NZ No 1, chose not to play and it was won by doubles specialist Artem Sitak.
Sitak put up a good effort in his 6-4 6-2 loss to Jeremy Chardy from France in the first round of the Classic.
But given that main draw wildcards to ATP tournaments are precious commodities and there only three of them for Auckland, they’re not something to be given out lightly.
All things considered, the best singles player in New Zealand is arguably Michael Venus, even though he only ever plays in this form of the game in the Davis Cup.
If Venus does make it to the ATP World Tour Finals in November with his American partner Ryan Harrison, that would only give him an off-season of two weeks, so would it be fair to expect him to back up again so soon at the NZ championships?
There is also the issue of whether Harrison would make it into the main draw of the singles.
He is ranked 51 in the world, which could be close to the cut off and as the Classic is a week before the Australian Open he would choose to play in Sydney, where the field usually isn’t as strong, rather than battle through qualifying in Auckland. So it might need a wildcard to tempt him to New Zealand
As for the women’s Classic, the winners of the singles and doubles tournaments at the NZ champs have never been guaranteed main draw wildcards for the WTAevent and it’s likely Marina Erakovic will again be looked after.