Launceston International 2019: Bourchier, Saville receive wildcards

Hobart-born 23-year-old Harry Bourchier has been a regular at Launceston for many years and enters the tournament in career-best form, having beaten his first top-100 player earlier this year and progressed to the quarter-finals of the Burnie International last week.  

Two-time junior Grand Slam winner Luke Saville also received a wildcard and will return to a tournament where he has enjoyed plenty of success previously. 

The fiance of former world no.20 Daria Gavrilova was a semi-finalist in 2016 and won the doubles in 2016 and 2017, partnering Jordan Thompson and Bradley Mousley respectively. 

Andrew Whittington, Rinky Hijikata and Chris O’Connell have also been handed spots in the main draw, which gets under way on Monday. 

Whittington reached the 2017 Australian Open doubles semi-final alongside Marc Polmans – who took out the singles title at Launceston last year – while Hijikata recently made headlines for an unfortunate exit in the Australian Open. 

Receiving and down match point, Hijikata gave away the match when he batted away a first serve, forgetting the new rules for juniors which deem the ball to be live even if it clips the net tape.