Wicky Is Dope

Rowan here, blogging from Auckland some more.

Yanina Wickmayer won the final yesterday! Flavia just couldn’t quite put it together like she had in previous rounds, and Wicky played pretty well. Not bad for a girl who was banned for 12 months a couple of weeks ago. Maybe it’s the start of a big year for her. The winner of the ASB Classic got a new variety of New Zealand flower named after her, so there were red flowers all around centre court which are now called Yanina Floweralus or something. I was trying to think of a WTA player with a really horrible name, so I could make a joke about it being a good thing she didn’t win this week, but I can’t think of one, so I won’t.

Meanwhile the draw has come out for Auckland's ATP tournament the Heineken Open, starting tomorrow tennis fans, and it is nuts. Our two hopeless New Zealand male players have drawn each other in the first round, so for the first time in about a million years we’re going to have a Kiwi in the second round. David Nalbandian has got 2008 champ Philipp Kohlschreiber in the first round, which is a tough draw for both of them. And the good news is Nalby managed to get in on his own ranking, so we got a third wildcard, which has gone to Sebastien Grosjean of all people. I didn’t know that dude was still playing. It will be cool to see him though. He’s got style.