A field of eight, compared with just two last year, competed in the wild card play-off at Stanley Street for the right to play in the ASB Classic next week. The first round on Monday had to be played indoors because of intermittent showers, but the weather improved enough to allow the semi-finals to be held outdoors. The results of those matches were:
Vivian Yang def. [2] Valentina Ivanov 7-5, 4-6, [10-3]
[3] Jade Otway def. Katie Oliver 5-7, 6-4, [10-7]
[1] Monique Barry def. Maria Galatescu 6-3, 6-0
[4] Elyse Tse def. Renee Zhang 6-2, 6-1
The semi-finals saw the lower-ranked player prevail in both matches.
Yang def. [3] Otway 4-6, 7-5, [10-4]
[4] Tse def. [1] Barry 7-6 (7), 7-6 (1)
It was the same story in today’s final, where Yang came from being well-beaten in the first set to race away with the match 1-6, 6-2, 6-2. That means she gets a wild card into the main draw, while Tse gets one into qualifying. It will be fascinating to see how they perform when put under the pressure of playing opponents ranked so much higher, with Tse ranked 1212 in singles and Yang not being currently ranked at all.