Oliver Marach gets
wildcard: Tata Open

Young Oliver Marach of Austria has been given the third and final wildcard in the singles main draw of the Tata ATP world tour, tournament director Sheila Maniam announced on Friday.

The 21-year-old has been showing signs of a promising pro-tennis career. At the US $8,00,000 international series gold tournament in Kitzbuhel, Austria, when he was awarded a wild card, he beat Jens Knippschild in the first round.

Second seed and former world No.1 Yevgeny Kafelnikov was his next opponent. Marach lost the first set in a tie-break. He played some fantastic tennis to win the second set 7-5 and almost scored the biggest upset of his career, before the second-seeded Kafelnikov narrowly won the final set 6-4.

In 2001, Marach also reached the quarter-finals of the Challengers in Antwerp, Belgium, and Montauban, France, before reaching the final in the Challenger in Oberstaufen, Germany.

He also reached the semi-finals in the Challenger in Graz, Austria.

Marach joins India's top two players, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi as the three wild card entrants in the Tata Open.

The Tata Open 2002 - Complete coverage