Tennis: Draws released for New Zealand tennis championships

New Zealand professional tennis player, Artem Sitak. Photo / Nick Reed.

The men's and women's singles draws feature some interesting match ups at the New Zealand Tennis Championships.

Finn Tearney is the top seed and defending champion Artem Sitak the second seed in the men's draw meaning a potential repeat of last year's final is on the cards. Olly Sadler is seeded third and James Meredith fourth.

The singles winners receive qualifying wildcards into next month's ASB Classic.

The top four seeds have received byes into the second round. Qualifying was completed today with the main draw action to get underway from the Albany Tennis centre on Tuesday morning.

The notable first round match up features Hawke's Bay's Rob Reynolds against tough qualifier Alex Limberger who battled through two qualifying rounds today spending 4 hours 30 minutes on court.

Tournament Director Blake Taylor says "there are some great early round matches, and some mouth-watering potential matches from the quarter finals."

New Zealand's top junior Ajeet Rai plays Auckland qualifier Takuma Ohashi with a potential second round match against Northern local coach Dean Moore.

Auckland based Fed Cup representative Joanna Carswell is the top seed in the women's draw with Claudia Williams seeded second, former WTA pro Sascha Jones third and Katherine Westbury is the fourth seed and will play their opening matches in the second round on Wednesday.

17 year old Melbourne based Oleksandra Kalachova could face a potential quarter final against Jones if she can get through the first two rounds.