8 October 2017 | Tennis Queensland

The official draw and opening ceremony of the Cairns Tennis International has set up some quality first round matches, most notably pairing last month’s Brisbane QTC International finalists Kim Birrell (Qld) and Asia Muhammad (USA) against each other in the first round of the women’s singles.

The draw was conducted by players Alex Bolt (Vic) and Olivia Rogowska (Vic), fourth and second seeds respectively. Instead of the usual ‘chips’ used to determine a player’s number in the draw, shells were numbered and drawn in a tropical Far North Queensland style ceremony.

As is the case when player entries are strong, there are some tough first round matches across both the men’s and women’s draw.

“I think the top half is pretty strong, I’m looking at the Saville Kubler match up, that’s a popcorn match there,” said Bolt of the first round to be played between two former world No.1 juniors Luke Saville and Jason Kubler.

“Also Jasika and Nolan will be a tough match, but looking through it all it doesn’t look like there’s going to be too many easy first round match ups,” added Bolt.

Meanwhile, in the women’s, the Birrell /Muhummad match up is particularly challenging for both players.

“Looking at the draw there are a lot of tough first rounds, as you said Kim and Asia played each other in the final of Brisbane and it was a really really tough match so for them to play each other in the first round is going to be a popcorn match for sure,” said Rogowska.

Both Rogowska and Bolt managed to draw qualifiers in their first rounds – something they don’t view as an advantage.

“There’s a lot of really tough first rounds, even me playing a qualifier, qualifiers are really tough they have three matches under their belt, they’re used to the conditions and they have confidence from qualifying,” said Rogowska.

Main draw matches begin on Tuesday, with qualifiers decided tomorrow.