FUTURES circuit warrior Chris O’Connell threw considerations for Tennis Australia’s men’s discretionary wildcards into even more uncertainty by outlasting Davis Cup player Sam Groth in five sets.

O’Connell, a Sydney 22-year-old who won five ITF Futures titles this year, reached the semi-finals of TA’s Australian Open wildcard playoffs with a 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, 4-6, 8-6 win over the experienced Groth at Melbourne Park.

Townsville’s John-Patrick Smith joined him in the last four of the event for a fourth time after beating top seed Andrew Whittington 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (11-9).

Fifth seed Smith, 27, is the highest-ranked player in an event that guarantees the winner a wildcard into the main draw of next month’s Australian Open and he will face NSW’s Blake Mott.

Groth was seeded second, so the elimination of the top two men’s seeds complicates further the form guide for main-draw wildcards on offer for the Brisbane and Sydney Internationals and the Australian Open, all in January.

There’s no doubt TA would like to give a wildcard to two or more of those events to Groth, the 2015 Newcombe Medallist who has not yet fully overcome foot surgery.

media_camera Sam Groth’s horror year continued at the Australian Open wildcard playoffs.

With a world ranking of No.180, Groth has six Australians ranked above him, two of whom would need wildcards into any January tournaments.

O’Connell is ranked No.240, but that represents a 395-place improvement on where he was in March and reflects three Futures singles titles in Australia and two, even more impressively, in Serbia on clay.

TA men’s bosses Lleyton Hewitt and Wally Masur have to line up the relative merit of the cases of Smith, O’Connell, Groth, Whittington and 2015 Davis Cup player Thanasi Kokkinakis, who has played one match this year due, mainly, to shoulder surgery.

Omar Jasika, Melbourne’s former US Open junior champion, is another playoffs semi-finalist from them to consider.

Ranked No.367, the 19-year-old had dropped 57 places in the rankings since TA gave him a main draw wildcard into the 2016 Australian Open which he turned into a win over world No.76 Illya Marchenko before he took a second-round loss.

media_camera Tennis Australia will also consider Omar Jasika for a wildcard place.

Jasika won 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 over Queensland’s Gavin van Peperzeel.

Whoever TA gives main-draw wildcards to, a Grand Slam event would do well to first receive entries into one or two ATP or WTA tournament main draw as well.

Destanee Aiava, 16, last weekend won herself an Australian Open main draw wildcard by taking out the national 18-and-under title and will become the first woman born this century to contest a Grand Slam tournament.

Brisbane 18-year-old Lizette Cabrera will make an Australia Open debut due to the wildcard awarded last month. But, like Aiava, she has not played in the main draw of a WTA event, whereas the lower-ranked Ash Barty, 20, has considerable WTA experience.

All four women’s quarter-finals at Melbourne Park today have Queensland players, with fourth seed Naiktha Bains opposed by NSW’s Abbie Myers.

Sara Tomic, seeded seventh, faces the seasoned second seed Alison Bai, of the ACT.

Sixth seed Olivia Tjandramulia takes on top seed Arina Rodionova, of Melbourne, with Kaylah McPhee looking to keep her run going against third-seeded Victorian Jaimee Fourlis.

Originally published as Groth stunned in Open wildcard playoffs