WITH all the ATP Tour and WTA Tour tournaments on hiatus for the time being, Draft Central will take a look at various nations across the globe and analyse how the top players from that nation are performing. Our next nation is Papua New Guinea.

Top ATP player: Nil.

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Top WTA player: Abigail Tere-Apisah
Rank: 377th (as of March 16, 2020)
Age: 27
Points: 123
Tournaments Played: 12

The only registered player on the WTA or ATP Tour is Abigail Tere-Apisah who is ranked inside the top 400. She might not be a familiar name, but in her last tournament completed, stunned number one seed and former top 100 player, Arina Rodionova in Perth 6-4 6-0. It was a remarkable win and her effort to reach the quarter finals before falling to Frenchwoman Irina Ramialison saw her rise up 54 ranking spots.

Tere-Apisah reached the semi-finals in the previous Perth ITF25 event, where she eventually went down to Australian Destanee Aiava, but had knocked off second seed Brit, Naiktha Bains in straight sets along the way. Teaming up with New Zealander, Paige Mary Hourigan in the doubles, she reached the final of the most recent Perth event before going down in three tight sets. It was the second final she had made in the format after reaching the ITF25k final with Australian Alicia Smith before losing in straight sets.

Last year was a solid year for Tere-Apisah who won an ITF25k event in Singapore, defeating top seed Russian Valeria Savinykh there. While she has stuck to the ITF Tour, the Papua New Guinean has shown an ability to beat top 100 quality players such as Rodionova along the journey.

Other notable Papua New Guinea WTA players: Nil.

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Summary:

With a career prizemoney of $55,261 USD in singles, Tere-Apisah has not played in the big money tournaments, but has been going around the ITF circuit notching up some impressive wins. She is ranked inside the top 400 for both singles and doubles, and to be the only player from her nation on tour is a special feat in itself.