Aussies hope to join Lleyton at Shanghai

Lleyton Hewitt isn’t the only Australian who has booked a spot at the 2005 Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai.

By virtue of his win at Wimbledon this year, Aussie Stephen Huss will also be there, pairing up with Wimbledon partner Wesley Moodie of South Africa.

Whilst no other Australians are within daylight of joining Hewitt in the singles side of things, the race to join Huss in the elite eight-field doubles event holds greater Australian presence.

One-half of Australia’s Davis Cup doubles team, Wayne Arthurs and doubles specialist Paul Hanley have recently staked a claim on a spot in Shanghai.

Their recent win at the Stockholm Open sees them comfortably occupying sixth place in the ATP doubles race and a semi-final birth at this week’s St. Petersburg Open have only bolstered the duo’s chances of qualifying for Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai.

Also still a possibility of hitting the big time event is another Aussie doubles specialist in Todd Perry. Perry, with regular partner Simon Aspelin of Sweden, is also still alive at the St. Petersburg Open, currently in the quarterfinals.

The pair was the number eight team going in to this week’s tournaments, trailing the number seven French pairing of Michael Llodra and Fabrice Santoro by 28 points.

The remainder of this week’s results will go a long way to determining how many other Australians will be joining Hewitt and Huss at this prestigious event beginning November 13.

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