Tennis: Coria gunning for the world's best

Guillermo Coria hopes his misfortune of a year ago does not return to hinder his plans to start the year on a winning note in Auckland this week.

The wiry world No 7 from Argentina is top seed for the Heineken Open starting today, and has drawn a potentially awkward opener against former champion Sjeng Schalken tomorrow.

But Coria, who turns 23 on Thursday, hopes he'll still be in Auckland for the party. Last year, an abdominal strain counted him out of his second-round match against eventual winner Dominik Hrbaty.

The second half of his year was marred by a shoulder injury. He missed three months before playing the end-of-year Masters Cup in Houston, but it knocked his chances of pressing the world's top two, Roger Federer and Andy Roddick.

Coria won two titles in the year, at Buenos Aires and Monte Carlo, made four other finals and reached his first Grand Slam final, losing 8-6 in the fifth set to fellow Argentine Gaston Gaudio in the French Open.

He must have fancied his chances in Paris, as he did not drop a set before the final and had won his previous 18 matches against his compatriot, not to mention holding a 6-0, 6-3 lead in the final before Gaudio began a stunning revival.

Coria reckoned he was primed for a big push in the second half of the year before his shoulder went bung.

"I realise that it is very tough to get over such a complicated injury," the 1.76m Coria said after practice at the ASB Tennis Centre yesterday.

"I am really keen to go back and try to be 100 per cent physically first.

"At the beginning of Roland Garros [in May] I really felt I was up there. If you are talking No 1, of course we all felt Federer was unbeatable last year, but I was playing well and my plans were to try and play as good as I could and maybe overtake Federer or Roddick or whoever was No 1 in 2005."

How versatile is Coria? Only three players - the remarkable Federer, Roddick and Coria - reached finals on hardcourt, clay and grass last year.

A cluster of the game's top players went through their paces yesterday.

They included former world No 1 and French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero, who spearheads a formidable Spanish presence, including world No 13 Tommy Robredo and their Davis Cup final winning teammate, teenager Rafael Nadal.

Ferrero and Robredo have been handed gift starts to the US$404,000 tournament, having drawn qualifiers in the first round, and have a day off today. Nadal has not been so fortunate and will need to be sharp against Hrbaty tomorrow.

The pair met in last year's final, which produced the amiable Slovak's second Auckland title.

They haven't met since, but the draw throwing them together does not faze 27-year-old Hrbaty.

"You can meet any of these guys on tour. I just thought it's not an easy first round," Hrbaty said. "But on the other side, the Spanish game, with the way I play, I really like their style. I like the long rallies. That's much better than a serve-volleyer, where you can't get any rhythm."

Today's matches are effectively an entree for a superb day tomorrow.

There are only two seeds in action today - ferocious hitter Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, who is seeded fifth, meets wildcard American James Blake, and fourth-seeded American Vince Spadea, out to build on a year which carried him to a career-high No 19, tackles Spain's David Sanchez.

There will be a New Zealand presence on centre court today with both Mark Nielsen and GD Jones, the top two finishers from the wildcard tournament at Remuera before New Year, on show.

Nielsen meets Italian Potito Sarace, the world No 76, then teams up with Canterbury's Dan King-Turner for their first-round doubles against Argentines Juan Ignacio Chela and Sebastian Prieto. University of Illinois-based Jones makes his entry in the final match of the night against another Argentine, Mariano Zabaleta, who has a career-high ranking of 21 and made the semifinals two years ago.

Today's schedule (all courts start 11am)

Court one: J. Acasuso (Argentina) v J. Benneteau (France), followed by P. Starace (Italy) v WC-M. Nielsen (NZ), followed by 5-F. Gonzalez (Chile) v WC-J. Blake (US), followed by J.-I. Chela/S. Prieto (Argentina) v D. King-Turner/Nielsen (NZ), followed by but not before D. Sanchez (Spain) v 4-V. Spadea (US), followed by M. Zabaleta (Argentina) v WC-G. D. Jones (NZ).

Court four: Q-F. Luzzi (Italy) v Q-J. Vacek (Czech Republic), followed by Q-R. Sluiter (Netherlands) v Q-B. Ulihrach (Czech Republic), followed by A. Calleri (Argentina)/R. Koenig (South Africa) v 4-M. Garcia/M. Hood (Argentina), followed by T. Cibulec (Czech Republic)/D. Hrbaty (Slovakia) v C. Suk/P. Vizner (Czech Republic).

Court six: Q-G. Oliver (US) v J. Hernych (Czech Republic), followed by Q-M. Kohlmann (Germany) v Q-P. Kohlschreiber (Germany), followed by C. Saulnier (France) v G. Muller (Luxembourg).

Open seeds
1 Guillermo Coria (Argentina), world No 7
2 Tommy Robredo (Spain), No 13
3 Dominik Hrbaty (Slovakia), No 14
4 Vince Spadea (US), No 19
5 Fernando Gonzalez (Chile), No 23
6 Juan Ignacio Chela (Argentina), No 26
7 Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spain), No 31
8 Luis Horna (Peru), No 38