Tennis: Direct entry list for Heineken Open released

The seedings for the 2005 Heineken Open were released with New Zealand tennis fans set to see some classy players in Auckland next month.

The player direct entry list was released by organisers today for the January 10-15 tournament with Argentinian and world No 7 Guillermo Coria top seed followed by Spain's Tommy Robredo.

Defending champion and two-time winner Dominik Hrbaty, ranked 14th in the world, rounds out the top three seedings.

American Vince Spadea at 19 will be the fourth seed followed by Olympic medallist Fernando Gozalez at 23 as fifth seed.

French Open quarterfinalist Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina is the sixth seed, while former world No 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, who is now ranked 31st, is the eighth seed.

The cut-off for the 23 direct acceptances is former champion Jonas Bjorkman at 70.

There are still four qualifying places, three wildcard entries and two special exemptions to be confirmed before the field is settled.

The tournament will be the 50th anniversary of the event with qualifying being held from January 8-9.

2005 Heineken Open player entry list (seed, name, rank, country):-

1- Guillermo Coria 7 ARG, 2-Tommy Robredo 13 ESP, 3- Dominik Hrbaty 14 SVK, 4-Vincent Spadea 19 US, 5-Fernando Gonzalez 23 CHI, 6-Juan Ignacio Chela 26 ARG, 7-Mario Ancic 29 CRO, 8- Juan Carlos Ferrero 31 ESP, 9-Luis Horna 38 PER, 10-Rafael Nadal 51 ESP, 11- Fabrice Santoro 52 FRA, 12-Cyril Saulnier 53 FRA, 13- Mariano Zabaleta 54 ARG, 14-Sjeng Schalken 57 NED, 15-Agustin Calleri 58 ARG, 16-Robby Ginepri 61 US, 17-Stefan Koubek 63 AUT, 18- Julien Benneteau 65 FRA, 19-Olivier Rochus 66 BEL, 20-Jose Acasuso 67 ARG, 21-Alberto Martin 68 ESP, 22-Gillies Muller 69 LUX, 23- Jonas Bjorkman 70 SWE.

- NZPA