Tennis: Cakewalk into open closed for high flyers

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Franco Squillari walked on to the Stanley St courts in January as the top seed in New Zealand's premier tournament.

When he returns for next year's Heineken Open, the Argentine, an early casualty at this year's tournament and now the 55th-ranked player on the ATP Tour list, will be only the 17th ranked player in the 32-strong field - and unseeded.

The seeds for this summer's tournament are all from the world's top 36. The 23 players guaranteed a start in the main draw for the singles are all inside the world's top 65.

Both are records for the Auckland tournament.

Some of the sport's big names, including former double French Open champion Sergi Bruguera and fellow Spaniard Juan Balcells, Frenchman Cedric Pioline and Karol Kucera from Slovakia, who have all entered the January 7-12 open, will have to play in the qualifying tournament on January 5 and 6.

Bruguera's other hope is of being handed a wildcard, but he will not be holding his breath.

Michael Chang has already been given one of three available wildcards, and another will go to the top-ranked New Zealand, who is likely to be Danny Willman.

Four other New Zealanders seem set to get wildcards into the qualifying tournament, which will find four players for the main draw.

Young Finn Jarkko Nieminen is an upset chance in the tournament, which is being used by players as a serious lead-in to the Australian Open, on the same surface as Stanley St and using the same balls.

Nieminen, this time last year ranked 308th in the world but now 61st, has had a big year, reaching the final in Stockholm in only his second tournament.

He beat Thomas Enqvist in the semifinals before losing to Sjeng Schalken in the final. Schalken is the fourth seed for next year's open.

Tournament director Graham Pearce has no concerns over reports that Wimbledon champion and open second seed Goran Ivanisevic has been called up for Army service in his native Croatia.

"It is a non-issue as far as we are concerned," said Pearce. "I'm sure if it was going to impact on his tennis we would have heard. I'm sure he would not have entered the Heineken Open if it was likely to be an issue."

Like the men's field, the players for the women's ASB Bank Classic will come in at a record low on current rankings.

The 22 players automatically into the main draw for the December 31-January 5 tournament are all from inside the top 80 on the end-of-year WTA rankings.

Headed by world No 23 and tournament top seed Angeles Montolio, the field includes some big names. Conchita Martinez is seeded fourth behind Henrieta Nagyova and Anne Kremer.

Defending champion Meilen Tu will take the sixth seeding. Anna Kournikova's ranking of 74 is good enough to get her into the main draw without a wildcard and the field could be further boosted by a late entry from an exempted player from inside the world's top 50.

"We have to hold one spot for such a player," said tournament director Richard Palmer. "Depending how high she is ranked, she could be seeded."

Three players have gained entry through winning designated WTA $US50,000 tournaments this year.