Tennis: Spot for wildcards at Heineken Open

The Heineken Open, in conjunction with Tennis New Zealand and Tennis North Harbour, will hold a wildcard qualifying tournament for next year's event.

Wildcard positions in the main singles draw are highly sought after and worth US$3910 in prizemoney alone, as well as five valuable ATP ranking points.

There is no obvious New Zealand player with a ranking high enough to be an outright certainty for a wildcard into the Open, to be held from January 10-15.

Tournament director Graham Pearce has confirmed that a minimum of two wildcard main draw positions will be available for New Zealanders and four into the qualifying. A third main draw wildcard may become available before the tournament.