Tennis: Venus withdraws from NZ Championships

Michael Venus playing at the Swiss Indoor tournament. Photo / Getty Images

The Pascoes New Zealand Tennis Championships starting tomorrow (Tuesday) won't have defending men's champion, Michael Venus in the draw after the top 50 ranked doubles player was forced to withdraw as a result of an ankle injury sustained in Florida last week.

However the depth of the tournament this year means the draw is still strong and there's plenty of competition up for grabs for the title..

Venus is remaining in the Florida to get the injury treated to make sure he is healed and prepared for the new year.

Top seed will be Wellington's Finn Tearney ranked at 482 in the world. Potentially Tearney would see himself facing Queenstown's Riki McLachlan in the quarters and either newly internationally ranked third seed Olly Sadler from Wellington or fifth seed and former champ Marcus Daniell (Masterton) who is ranked 50 in the world in doubles.

Second seed is now Ben McLachlan who has recently become a top 200 ranked doubles player with his path to the final blocked by seeded players such as another former champ in Artem Sitak, former top 200 player Wesley Whitehouse and local Alex Klintcharov.

Unseeded players to watch for include the newly crowned national 18's winner Ajeet Rai from Taranaki as well as Hawkes Bay's 18's finalist Finn Reynolds and former Davis Cup player Sebastian Lavie.

The men's singles winner receives a wildcard into the main draw of the ASB Classic next month. The doubles winners also gain main draw wildcards.

The women's draw has the intriguing top seed of Erin Routliffe who is Kiwi-born but resides in Canada and is a former top 20 ranked junior who is currently around the 600 mark on the WTA rankings.

Routliffe is drawn to meet third seed Jade Lewis in the semifinals. Lewis is returning from her base in the United States and is known for her hard-hitting in what could be a tough contest if they can make it that far in the draw.

Second seed is Jo Carswell from Auckland who has been playing pro tournaments around the world but will have to watch out for Paige Hourigan, Leela Beattie and new 18's champ Lauren Alter in her half of the draw.

The first, second and quarter-finals will be held at the Albany Tennis Park, while the semis on Friday 16 December and finals of Saturday 17 December are held at the ASB Tennis Arena.

The women's singles winner is awarded a wildcard into the qualifying of the ASB Classic in January. Both men's and women's singles winners take away $7,000 each for the titles.