Tennis: Big guns gutted at first-round showdown

By TERRY MADDAFORD


Goran Ivanisevic and Sjeng Schalken could not believe their bad luck.

After flying together from the season-opening tournament in Doha, Qatar, to Auckland and arranging along the way to practice together at Stanley St ahead of this week's Heineken Open, two of the big names in world tennis were "gutted" to find they had been drawn to play each other in a feature first-round match.

"Those plans had to be changed," said Ivanisevic. "It will not be easy having to play the defending champion first up, but I'm looking forward to playing here. I have heard a lot about New Zealand and know I can expect some good support from local Croatians.

"A lot of the players have talked about Auckland and say it is a good tournament."

The former world No 2 and three-time Wimbledon finalist is back in New Zealand for the first time in 10 years. He was last here as a 17-year-old for a Davis Cup tie in Christchurch.

After a disappointing 1999 when his world ranking slipped to 62, Ivanisevic said, "I can only go up."

He pointed to last year's statistics, which showed that of the world's top 100 he had the most double faults and worst percentage of service returns.

He also slipped from the top of the list of players serving the most aces. But he insists he is better than that. And ready to play.

"I played a different sport last year," joked Ivanisevic.

There will be no time for joking this week.

The open has drawn the strongest field in 20 years. Dutchman John van Lottum, the last player into the main draw, has a world ranking of 69.

There are four former champions in the 32-strong field. The eighth seed, Marc Rosset, of Switzerland, has a ranking of 46.

There was no seeding for Michael Chang, another former world No 2, Ivanisevic or Schalken.

Chang plays Zimbabwe's Byron Black in the feature game of the first day today.

They follow Mark Nielsen, the only New Zealander in the singles, on to centre court. Nielsen faces a tough first-up battle with Sweden's Magnus Gustafsson - the 1994 Open winner and now ranked 60 in the world. Nielsen is ranked 243.

Wildcard Richard Fromberg (Australia) meets Jan-Michael Gambill in tonight's singles, followed by Kiwi James Greenhalgh and Jonas Bjorkman (Sweden), who meet Americans Pat Galbraith and Chris Woodruff in a first-round doubles match.

Other New Zealanders paired with overseas players, James Shortall and Alistair Hunt, will play their first doubles matches tomorrow.