LTA Play-off To Decide Final Stella Artois Wild Card
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© Getty ImagesJosh Goodall has received a wild card into
the main draw.
A play-off will decide the destination of the final Stella Artois Championships wild card after Britain’s Josh Goodall was given the fourth direct invitation into the main draw.
The remaining wild card will go to either Arvind Parmar, Jamie Delgado, Mark Hilton or Alex Bogdanovic. The British quartet will do battle in a play-off in Surbiton today, with the victor winning direct entry into the event that begins at the Queen’s Club in London on Monday.
The Stella Artois Championships will mark the first appearance in the main draw of an ATP tour-level event for Goodall.
The Hampshire-born 19-year-old has made impressive progress over the past 12 months. In April 2004 he was playing a Futures event in South Korea without a world ranking. At the beginning of May 2005 he had moved to a career-high position of No.297.
"Josh Goodall is a good young player who has moved up well over the last 12 months and we are looking to the future,” said David Felgate, the LTA’s Director of Performance.
"As for the other wild card, Mark Petchey (the LTA’s Manager of Men’s National Training) could have given it to one player, but the guys had similar rankings – you could throw a blanket over them - and so we decided to let them play-off for it."
Bogdanovic, currently No.184 in the Entry Rankings, and No.204 Hilton will be the top seeds in the play-off. Parmar and Delgado, currently No.’s 205 and 211 respectively, will be drawn to meet them. The play-offs will begin at 11am, with the two winners to play each other later in the day to decide the destination of the final Stella Artois wild card.
Whoever does advance will join an all-star cast in the Stella Artois main draw, which will be made at 4pm on Saturday. Defending champion Andy Roddick, three-time winner Lleyton Hewitt, and Britain’s Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski will all be in the field.
They are joined by 1997 champion Mark Philippoussis, young prodigies Andrew Murray, Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils, and last year’s Wimbledon semi-finalist Mario Ancic and Sebastien Grosjean – a two-time Stella Artois finalist.
Final’s day at the 2005 Stella Artois Championships will also feature a special challenge match between John McEnroe and Boris Becker to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Becker’s big breakthrough. It will be the first time that they have ever played each other on a grass court.
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