Talented Wairarapa junior Marcus Daniell is one of seven wildcards included in the qualifying draw for the US$15,000 ASB pro circuit tennis event which gets under way in Wellington this weekend. Daniell, 17, a New Zealand age group representative who has been the beaten finalist in the national 18's men's singlesfor the past two years, is now based in Auckland but played for Wairarapa seniors at their annual inter-provincial tourney earlier this season. He played a major part in Wairarapa finishing a best-ever second in that six-team event, winning all his singles and doubles matches. All seven of the qualifying wildcards for Wellington are teenagers, with the youngest being the Wellington duo of Finn Tearney and Michael Pigou, who are both 16. Tearney won the ITF junior tourney in Wellington last week. Also included in the draw are Austin Childs, 18, from Tauranga, an ITF junior tourney winner in Auckland a couple of weeks ago and a quarter-finalist in the Australian junior singles last year, 17-year-olds Sam Gould from Waikato and Jackson Bodle from Northland, and Aucklander Michael Bartlett The four main draw singles qualifiers who were announced earlier are Rubin Statham, Simon Rea, Adam Thompson and Matt Simpson, the latter being a son of former profiessional player and New Zealand Davis Cup coach Jeff Simpson. Kiwi No.1 Dan King-Turner has a direct entrant place into the Wellington tourney as a result of his ranking.
