The first in a summer series of NZ Money tournaments around the country kicked off in Hamilton at the weekend. Friday provided many local youngsters the opportunity to make the main draw through a qualifying draw. Both Adam Gage-Brown & Jake McCartney, juniors that have moved from Thames to Hamilton for their training were successful in making it through. Jake McCartney did particularly well defeating 2nd seed Hamish Duff (Auckland) 6/3 6/4. The unusual feature was Adam Thompson (ex Davis Cup reserve player) due to being a late entry had to enter through playing the qualifying draw. Once he waltzed through this draw he was then named first seed with Wesley Whitehouse (Auckland) in the second spot. 

Both the Men’s & Women’s draws feature some overseas players that will make life interesting for the players. Two Argentineans are seeded 3 & 5 with an Australian also quietly making his way through the block draw format in the Men’s draw, while the top seed in the women’s draw is little known German player Franziska Etzel. Our only local player in the Women’s draw is Heidi Stewart who is seeded 5th.
This block draw format allows the top eight seeds of a maximum 24 player draw to move through to the 3rd round while the other 16 players fight it out in the first two rounds. The players are up for $5,000 prize-money in the men’s draw with $2,000 for the women due to smaller numbers. Both Tennis NZ and Tennis Waikato-Bays contribute towards this.