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Battered by the weather all week and then by his friend David Ferrer in the Heineken Open final yesterday, Tommy Robredo must have felt like the tennis gods were against him when he discovered he was due on court in Melbourne tomorrow.
Robredo will meet Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo, also of Spain, in the first round of the Australian Open tomorrow, but felt organisers could have shown he and Ferrer, who also plays tomorrow, a little more charity by scheduling them later in the week.
After appearing in Perth at the Hopman Cup, the world No 7 then high-tailed it to Auckland and a combination of weather and the fact he made the Heineken Open final means he won't get to Melbourne until today.
"It's good preparation for Australian Open," he said. "[But] the guys there, they don't treat us so well and put us on Monday. It's our duty as well to go there and smile to everyone and play on Monday even if we don't want to.
"Sometimes a few other things are more important than the players. That's the way it is. I don't think it is the way it should be but it is the way it is.
"If you win a title, then maybe you can tell them something. We are not arriving late because we want to, it's because we are trying to make the Auckland tournament good. It's our job as well to be here.
"I would prefer to have two days to prepare but we can't do much about that. As a player, me and David have a feeling that they don't treat us as they should."
Heineken Open tournament director Graham Pearce, who is also an ATP Tour board member, said they discussed the issue with Australian Open officials. "It's a matter of the Australian Open deciding the schedule of their tournament and they have decided they will play it top half [one day], bottom half [the next]," he said. "We have discussed it with them and we are hoping to get some flexibility from them. It's certainly a negative for some players coming here to get over to Australia."
The tournament was particularly badly hit by weather and there were fears the final might have to be played today but Pearce implied this could be a factor in players deciding whether they journey to Auckland the week before the Australian Open.
At a time when tennis officials are talking about the importance of player welfare, Robredo and Ferrer might feel they are hollow words.
The doubles final will resume this morning at 11. Top seeds Simon Aspelin and Chris Haggard claimed the first set 7-6 (11-9) over Jeff Coetzee and Rogier Wassen and were on serve at 1-2 in the second when play was called off last night.
