Many of the best Australian players ranked outside the top 100 will battle for a wild card into the main draw of the Australian Open 2017.
The tournament will be held at Melbourne Park from the 12th to the 18th of December and the matches will be played best-of-five sets.
23 year-old Andrew Whittington will be the top seed, after a brilliant 2016 season which carried him to his best ranking (170) in singles. His best career’s result so far is the quarterfinal reached at the Australian Open 2014 in doubles with Alex Bolt.
But the man to beat might be the big server and former world’s number 53 Sam Groth. The 29 year-old had a really disappointing year in singles, but found some good results in the end to finish in the top 200. He will be the second seed of the tournament.
Another big contender is the former top-40 Marinko Matosevic. At the moment his ranking is just enough to get into the qualifying draw, but he could find his best tennis in Melbourne.
Also, fourth seed will be 19 year-old Marc Polmans. The Aussie hope has improved incredibly in 2016, rising from the 800th place to the top 250, and might be ready to play at a higher level.
Two other teenagers in the field are 18 year-old Max Purcell, ranked 326th, and 17 year-old Alex De Minaur, ranked 351st. They both found big results on the Challenger Tour in 2016, and they are not going to be easy opponents in Melbourne.
Serve and volley specialist John-Patrick Smith will come back to play the playoff as well. After losing a dramatic 5-set final to Jordan Thompson two years ago, the left hander will try again next week.
AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2017 Play-off field:
Andrew Whittington (170)
Sam Groth (181)
Marinko Matosevic (225)
Marc Polmans (226)
John-Patrick Smith (231)
Christopher O’Connell (240)
Luke Saville (266)
Blake Mott (289)
Max Purcell (326)
Alex De Minaur (351)
Omar Jasika (367)
Dayne Kelly (392)
Maverick Banes (396)
Gavin Van Peperzeel (462)
Harry Bourchier (870)
18/u Boys’ Australian Championships winner
