Former champion Lauren Davis grabs ASB Classic wild card
The 25-year-old American Lauren Davis had been ranked inside the top-100 for six consecutive seasons, cracking the top-30 in May last year after winning her first WTA title in Auckland and a few more good results that pushed her towards the very top of the women's standings. Nonetheless, Lauren struggled to find her rhythm in the rest of the season and 2018 wasn't much better either, dropping out from the top-200 and finishing the year ranked 174th after reaching the final in Houston as a qualifier in the last tournament of the 2018 campaign.
The Gates Mills native will try to bounce back in 2019 and she will have a chance to open the season with some main Tour wins after receiving the final wild card for the ASB Classis in Auckland. Davis won the title there in 2017 and the organizers have picked her in front of home players Elys Ventura, Valentina Ivanov, Paige Mary Hourigan and Erin Routliffe who will all fight in the Saturday's qualifying matches. Thus, Davis joins the other Americans Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Amanda Anisimova who also received the main draw wild card and if any of the home stars fail to qualify the home nation will have no players in the main draw for the first since 2006.
Paige Hourigan and Valentina Ivanov were in contention for that last remaining wild card but the tournament director Karl Budge decided to go with Davis and let the home players battle in the qualifying draw as he couldn't decide who should get the invitation. Paige is the better-ranked player while Ivanov claimed the national title earlier in December, leaving Budge with a very tough decision to make. By the will of the draw, Valentina and Paige Mary will face each other in the opening qualifying round on Saturday on Centre Court and Budge will be there to watch the young stars that should keep New Zealand on the tennis map in the years to come.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2LGGxlp
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