KEY POINTS:
All four wildcards for January's men's tennis open have been awarded to New Zealand players.
Rubin Statham, Adam Thompson, Matt Simpson and Oliver Statham will gain positions in the qualifying where they will potentially face players ranked inside the world's top 100.
Twenty-four-year-old Thompson recently won the Auckland Championships and the New Zealand Residential title and has an ATP ranking of 1281.
Despite not playing events in the later part of the year, Thompson scored one quarter-final singles result at Futures level as well as one doubles title and two semis doubles finishes and a quarter-final run at the Hawaiian Challenger.
Rubin Statham, 19, has an ATP ranking of 862 after reaching the quarters at three Futures events in 2006 while twin brother Oliver is 1424. The pair combined to make two Futures doubles finals during the year.
Matt Simpson, 22, the son of former professional and former Davis Cup captain Jeff Simpson, gained his first points this year in Egypt. He is 1374.
Qualifying will be played at the More FM Tennis Park, Albany, on January 6 and 7.
Top ranked players in the Heineken Open main draw include No 7 Tommy Robredo of Spain, Mario Ancic from Croatia, the 2006 finalist and current No 9, current champion, Jarkko Nieminen of Finland who is ranked at 15 and former world No 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero at No 23.
The Heineken Open is at the ASB Tennis Centre from January 8-13.
