Sacha Jones has decided to switch elegances and moves from playing for New Zealand to Australia. This move will allow the 21 year old Aucklander to play to Australia as of next week.
“I’m very grateful for the support that Tennis New Zealand has given to my career to date but, if I want to achieve my goals, I believe that being involved in the Australian program will give me the best opportunity to do it.”
With a New Zealand mother and an Australian father, Jones has dual nationality and had the option of playing for either country.
New Zealand have been banned from the 2012 Fed Cup. This is a penalty for a late withdrawal in a match at the end of last year, when top New Zealand player werent able to play. Both were somewhat injured and Tennis New Zealand didn’t want to pay the $50,000 fee to send an inexperienced team.
I think the ban is a little harsh as they should have been just fined an amount of money instead. Cant leave a country out of an international event!
Marina Erakovic has just had the best win of her young career. Marina Erakovic defeated Victoria Azarenka 4-6 7-5 6-2.
This is Erakovic’s first win over anyone in the top 20. Its great to see a young Kiwi doing so well and Im looking forward to seeing if she can backup this result.
“Coming in I knew I had to be the aggressor and try to dictate the pace,” Erakovic said. “I knew the court and I felt like I was hitting the ball well.”
World number 5, Maria Sharapova has decided not to play the ASB Classic which is held in Auckland, New Zealand but instead commit to the Brisbane event which will be promoted to Premier status for next year’s tournament. She played at the Auckland event this year as a warm-up for the Australian Open but lost in the quarters to eventual champion Greta Arn. She was the number one seed and was payed an appearance fee of over US$100,000, despite the fact that she earned only around US$5000 as prize money.
I hope the Kiwi fans won’t be upset at her decision, and now the Australian crowd has so much to look forward to at the next Brisbane tournament, especially since the event attracted so many star players in the past.
