The Heineken Open men's tennis tournament is now bereft of Grand Slam singles winners after the field's second French Open winner was knocked out today.
Former world No 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, the French Open winner in 2003, was knocked out in his first round match 6-4 6-2by Olympic Champion Nicolas Massu of Chile.
His defeat follows that on Monday of 2004 French Open champion Gaston Gaudio, knocked out in three sets by third seed David Ferrer of Spain.
Ferrero, the tournament sixth seed, looked a little rusty and had real problems getting his first serve in. When he did get his serve in he found Massu's running and shot-making too much to handle.
Massu's second round opponent will be Juan Ignaciu Chela of Argentina, a 7-6(2) 6-3 winner today over Nicolas Mahut of France.
In the day's other result so far, doubles second seeds Leos Friedl of the Czech Republic and Michael Kohlmann of Germany were beaten 6-3 1-6 10-7 by defending champion Rogier Wassen of the Netherlands and his partner for this year, Jeff Coetzee of South Africa.
On time
Matches began on time at the Heineken Open men's tennis tournament in Auckland today as organisers attempt to catch up following yesterday's wash-out.
The day dawned with light rain and low cloud but the rain stopped by 9.45am and conditions were cloudy but pleasant by the start time of 11.20am.
Persistent rain meant none of the 12 matches scheduled for yesterday were played. Fifteen matches were scheduled today.
