Kiwi Awarded Wildcard to 2008 Heineken Open
New Zealand’s top player Dan King-Turner has been granted a main draw singles wildcard for the 2008 Heineken Open featuring the Sovereign singles and doubles.
The wildcard is just reward for King-Turner, 23 who has had a steady rise in rankings for jumping well over a hundred places from over 450 in the rankings to his current position of 342 and established himself as a fulltime player on the Challenger circuit.
King-Turner won two Futures singles titles in 2007 – France and Japan and was a singles finalist twice on grass in Britain. He also showed his versatility by winning on clay in Japan and then travelling around the world to Spain where he qualified for a Futures on clay and then made the semis.
At the 2007 Heineken Open he was beaten by now top-25 ranked Juan Monaco in the first round but teamed with Jarkko Nieminen for a first round doubles victory.
He has a career-high singles ranking of 307 and a current doubles ranking of 214 (one place off his high).
He won his first Futures singles title in Britain in 2006 after a long battle to get rid of niggling injuries.
“It is great to be given a wildcard. I really appreciate the support Graham Pearce has given me. I’ve had a good solid year in 2007. I managed to improve both ranking and playing wise. It was important that I was able to step up and start playing and competing well at Challenger level,” says King-Turner.
His doubles ranking and success improved rapidly throughout 2007 winning successive Challenger titles – Rimuski in Canada and Brisbane with a Futures title the previous event with one other Futures title in the year. He also made the finals of five other Futures events.
“We normally reserve a wildcard for the top ranked Kiwi male and Dan has worked hard in 2007. He thoroughly deserves his spot in the Sovereign singles at the 2008 Heineken Open,” says Heineken Open tournament director, Graham Pearce.
The Heineken Open featuring the Sovereign singles and doubles will be held at the ASB Tennis Centre, January 7 – 12, 2008 with the first two days of qualifying January 5 – 6, 2008 at the Albany Tennis Park, Oteha Valley Road, Albany starting at 10am each day.
The 2008 tournament will feature live scoring as well as live streaming of play.
