Oz Open Wildcard Playoff
The USTA, through a reciprocal arrangement with Tennis Australia (i.e. they receive a wildcard for the U.S. Open), has one wildcard in both the men’s and women’s Australian Open singles main draws. The USTA has elected to hold round robin events in order to select the recipient of these precious direct entries into the 2008 Australian Open main draws. In order to be eligible to play in the round robins, players must be aged 22 or younger and be ranked in the top 300 for the women and top 200 for the men. 17-year-old Madison
Brengle won four straight matches (in the round robin and finals) to earn her second consecutive wildcard for the Australian Open. Brengle will compete again at Melbourne Park during the 2008 Oz Open. The men’s round robin will be played December 18-20th and feature John Isner, Wayne Odesnik, Jesse Levine (Roger Federer’s post-Wimbledon practice partner last summer) and Alex Kuznetsov. The round robin format is a good way to select the wildcard with such a small number of eligible players. However, the age limitation seems to overly-emphasize “future stars” at the expense of some talented players in their early to mid-twenties. For example, how about allowing players 25 and under to compete. Clearly, the USTA is trying to find and nurture the “next generation” of tennis stars, but there are also possibly a couple players in their twenties who might be able to significantly improve their results with one big break such as a Grand Slam singles wildcard. Let's offer them a chance too…
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