12 December 2013 | Tennis Queensland

The Asia-Pacific Australian Open Wildcard Playoffs continue in the Guangdong Province, China and Queensland’s top seeded men are advancing through the ranks.

This competition gives the opportunity for Asia-Pacific’s best tennis players to win a wild card for the Australian Open in January and it’s looking highly likely that a Queenslander will win back-to-back wild cards this year.

In the Men’s singles #1 seed Queenslander John-Patrick Smith defeated #7 seed Dane Propoggia of New South Wales 6-4 6-4 7-5.

The good news continues with #3 QLD seed Benjamin Mitchell narrowly defeating #6 seed Victoria’s Andrew Whittingon 6-4 6-4 6-4.

It was two out of three for our Queensland players on Thursday as Akira Santillan was outplayed by #8 seed Luke Saville of South Australia.

These quarterfinal results place two Queenslander’s in the semi-finals.

JP Smith will play #4 seed Jordan Thompson of NSW and Ben Mitchell has drawn #8 seed Luke Saville of SA.

Both matches will be played on Friday with the Smith vs. Thompson match-up starting at 10am and Mitchell vs. Svaille will follow the conclusion of the first game.

Ben Mitchell will approach his match with plenty of confidence he’s been performing in pressure situations of late and he’s got experience on his side, as Mitchell was the winner of the 2013 Australian Open Wild Card Playoffs.

High quality tennis is assured when JP Smith and #4 seed Jordan Thompson collide, neither player dropped a set in the quarterfinals and both expertly managed to grind out their opponents in those matches.

Watch all the action live on YouTube via AustralianOpenTV