Motomura and Morigami win Australian Open wildcards

The Australian Open has given Japan's Goichi Motomura and Akiko Morigami the Asian wildcard entries for the grand slam tournament in January, officials said on Monday.

Motomura, ranked 189 on the men's ATP entry rankings, and Morigami, listed at 121 on the women's rankings, won the men's and women's singles titles at the Asian championships in Uzbekistan earlier this month.

Tennis Australia has offered wildcards to Asian players since 1997. This year's men's Asian wildcard entrant at the Australian Open, Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan, won the TD Waterhouse Cup in New York in August, becoming the first Asian player to win singles title since India's Leander Paes in 1998 at Newport.

Srichaphan beat former world number one Andre Agassi and current number one Lleyton Hewitt this year.

Motomura said he wanted to follow the lead of Srichaphan, who has improved his ranking from 120 to inside the top 30.

Australian Open chief executive Paul McNamee said: "We hope that the experience they gain will help the future development of their careers."