Tennis: And the seeds just keep falling at Stanley St

By TERRY MADDAFORD

The ghost that hung over the seeds at last week's women's tennis tournament was rattling around the Stanley St courts yesterday as top seed Franco Squillari crashed out on an absorbing opening day of the men's international.

The Argentine, top-seeded for the first time on the ATP Tour, was despatched in 84 minutes by unseeded Austrian Stefan Koubek 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 in the Heineken Open.

Last week, top seed Sandrine Testud (France) was also a first-round casualty.

Koubek, ranked 35 places lower than Squillari, converted a far greater percentage of break-point opportunities to keep his opponent on the back foot throughout much of the match.

After pushing Koubek all the way in the third game, Squillari dropped his next service game after a double fault had given the Austrian 0-40.

The match then went with serve until the ninth game when Squillari broke back, eventually sending the set to a tiebreaker.

Koubek cruised home 7-4.

Squillari was broken in the third game of the second set and then played a 24-point fourth game as he battled to remain in the match.

Down 15-40, Koubek won two crucial points for deuce. In a give-and-take struggle - punctuated by eight break points - Squillari had his chance but could not win the point he desperately needed for 2-2.

Koubek, who picked up crucial points with his well-directed backhand, later acknowledged the importance of that game in a match in which he was guilty of unforced forehand errors.

"That game was up and down with stupid mistakes by both of us," said Koubek, who celebrated his 24th birthday last week.

"Like him, I do not like the faster courts, but it worked out better for me."

There were service breaks in the fifth, sixth and seventh games - at which point Koubek led 5-2 - before some semblance of order returned as he served it out, tossing in his fifth ace and second double-fault along the way.

"I think Stefan played so good today," 25-year-old Squillari said later.

"I made too many mistakes with my backhand. Maybe I will go better at the Australian Open.

"In the first set I concentrated well, but I made too many mental mistakes in the second."

Both players lost in the first round of last week's tournament in Doha.

Koubek went out in three sets to Spaniard Alex Calatrava.

But he will have the chance for early revenge if Calatrava can beat another Argentine, Agustin Calleri, in their first-round clash today.

In other opening-day action, Spanish wildcard Felix Mantilla lost 5-7, 5-7 to unseeded Argentine Mariano Zabaleta.

"I felt good out there," 22-year-old Zabaleta said after his 113-minute match on the centre court.

"I like the surface and I like the tournament in Auckland. I'm happy."

As a typical clay-court specialist, Zabaleta rarely strayed from the baseline in wearing his opponent down with some well-angled ground strokes.

In serving 13 aces to none, he gave Mantilla few opportunities.

Fourth-seed Gaston Gaudio took to the court last night hoping to give Argentina their second victory, but he ran into dangerous Ukrainian floater Andrei Medvedev, and was sent packing 3-6, 3-6.

Medvedev, the former world No 4 who had an injury-plagued 2000, took time to find his feet on his first visit to Auckland, but once his well-struck strokes found their range he constantly had Gaudio - a semifinalist here last year - struggling.

After a great opening day, "terrific Tuesday" promises even more, with six seeds on court, as well as the second match on centre court, between wildcards Mark Nielsen (New Zealand) and Briton Greg Rusedski.