Australian Open wildcards for US teenagers

MELBOURNE: American teenagers Sam Querrey and Madison Brengle have received wildcards into the main draw of next month's Australian Open.   

Querrey, 19, ranked 130 in the world, is a fast-rising youngster who improved more than 600 spots in the rankings during the same year he graduated from high school.   

Brengle, 16, earned her entry into the year's first Grand Slam tournament by winning an eight-player event at the USTA Player Development headquarters in Key Biscayne, Florida and is ranked 498 in the world.   

They are the recipients of the wildcards under a reciprocal arrangement with the United States Tennis Association (USTA). The USTA gave Australians Mark Philippoussis and Alicia Molik singles main draw wildcards into this year's US Open as part of the arrangement.   

Tennis Australia awards eight men's and eight women's main draw wildcards to the January 15-28 Australian Open in Melbourne, with the two Asian wildcards already awarded to Go Soeda of Japan and Uzbekistan's Iroda Tulyaganova.   

Two wildcards are still to be nominated by the French Tennis Federation as part of a reciprocal exchange with the French Open.