Matthew Ebden has been rewarded and Jarmila Gajdosova boosted by wildcard entries into the Brisbane International tennis tournament after starkly contrasting seasons.
South African-born, Perth-based Ebden enjoyed a breakthrough year in which he reached a career-high ranking of 61 in October.
"The year 2012 was good in a few ways. I won some of my first grand slam matches and played in the main draws of all the slams," said Ebden, currently the world number 105.
"I also won some of my first Davis Cup matches and debuted ... and won by far the most tour matches through the whole season that I have ever done."
For Gajdosova, the wildcard into the December 30 to January 6 Brisbane International is a much-needed shot in the arm in an injury-ravaged 2012 in which her ranking has dropped 150 places to 184.
Slovakian-born Gajdosova looked forward to joining a women's field boasting eight of the world's top-10 players.
"It means a lot. I can't thank enough the Brisbane International and Tennis Australia for giving me this opportunity to start my comeback and new year playing main draw at such a great event," Gajdosova said.
"I've been working hard this off season - also had some time off, so I am very excited to come back home and play in front of my home crowd.
"I feel healthy and happy and hope all my hard work on and off the court will show."
Brisbane International director Cameron Pearson said the pair was a logical pick for selectors.
"They want to know that they can play at that level and certainly both Matty and Jaka can," he said.
"They both make themselves available for our national teams - the Fed Cup team and the Davis Cup team - so they were certainly always high on the list as wildcards too."
ABC/AAP
Tags: tennis, sport, brisbane-4000, qld, australia First posted December 12, 2012 11:12:55
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