Classic wildcards in hot 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 champs, 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 are 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
Classic tournament director Karl Budge is keen on recognising Venus’ magnificent 2017 but has a lot of balls to juggle.
‘‘Mike’s season has been absolutely phenomenal and I don’t think it’s been given the kudos it deserves,’’ Budge said.
‘‘I’d like to think that when the Halberg nominations come out, he is among the contenders.
‘‘So we absolutely want to celebrate that and what he and Ryan have achieved this year and give him the chance to do that in front of his home crowd.’’
Budge wants to encourage New Zealand’s top players to enter the NZ champs and although he can’t make any promises at this stage, he has assured those who do well in that tournament will be remembered for the Classic.
‘‘We will 100 per cent reward performance at the NZ championships for the ASB Classic,’’ he said.
‘‘Also, we want the best of New Zealand tennis to be playing at the championships.’’
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 WTA event and it’s likely Marina Erakovic will again be looked after.