At Your Discretion

So... um...

The December Showdown is over. Lindahl and Dellacqua are through to the main draw of the Australian Open.

So what am I going to talk about now? December is a useless month, honestly. Do the players reeeeeeeally need an off season? Doesn't anyone ever think of the bloggers?

I shall have to do the best I can with what little I have, I suppose (less than two weeks until Abu Dhabi! THANK GOD.) So let's talk discretionary wildcards. The playoff may be over, but Tennis Australia has still got a few cards left to give out. I don't know how many are reserved for the reciprocal arrangements we have with the US and France, but I think (read: I read somewhere) that Tennis Oz has three wildcards leftover for the girls and four for the men. Or maybe the other way round.

So who do you card in?

Let's start with the boys. Tomic is a gimme, if you ask me. He played a night match on Rod Laver Arena last year and he's one of Australia's best hopes for the future. There is a wildcard with Bernard's name on it somewhere, mark my word. Peter Luczak will, I think, make it in my virtue of his ranking, so we don't need to worry about him. Chris Guccione is a possibility, but if he didn't play the play off, then maybe he's injured or something. Same with Marinko Matosevic.

That's a good criterion, actually - if you didn't play the play off, you obviously don't care. This leaves us with Tomic and two others. I think Tennis Australia will probably give on to Brydan Klein, though I don't think I would (mostly on the grounds that there was that sledging thing that one time and I'm not down with that). And maybe Greg Jones. Though I would give one to James Duckworth, because I think he's awesome.

Over to the girls, and you've got to pick Rogowska and Molik straight off. I'd be very surprised if they didn't carded in - Molik especially. If I were Craig Tiley, I'd also be giving a card to Yanina Wickmayer, even though she isn't Australian, but it looks like he's already said no. So if we;re just going off girls that played the playoff, I'd be looking in the direction of Wejnert and Peers. They definitely have something to offer.

The actual Open aside, I'll be looking to see who gets carded into the subsidiary events - your Brisbanes and Hobarts and Sydneys. We could get a good view of some interesting young talent...