Tennis: Fourth top signing points to highest-calibre Open yet

By DAVID LEGGAT


A player who owes his name to The Who's famous rock opera Tommy is the Auckland international tournament's fourth big signing.

Spaniard Tommy Robredo, the world's No 12 player, has been confirmed for January's Heineken Open.

He is likely to be the second seed for the $US404,000 tournament behind world No 5 Argentine Guillermo Coria.

Robredo, 22, joins fellow countryman Rafael Nadal in what is shaping as perhaps Auckland Tennis' highest-calibre Open. Three of the first four stars named so far - Coria, Slovakia's Dominic Hrbaty and Robredo - are among the world's top 15 players. The 18-year-old lefthander Nadal, world No 48, is among the game's brightest talents.

"He's a typical Spanish player, very aggressive, a hustler round the court and really exciting to watch," tournament director Graham Pearce said of Robredo yesterday.

Robredo, who with Nadal reached the semifinals of the US Open doubles this year and the last 16 of the Australian Open, is the backbone of Spain's bid to win the Davis Cup next month. Along with Nadal and world No 4 Carlos Moya, they will take on the United States at Seville.

Robredo and Nadal won a five-setter over French pair Michael Llodra and Arnaud Clement to help seal Spain's semifinal win in September.

Robredo's father, Angel, a professional tennis coach, was a big fan of The Who's Tommy, so much so that when his son was born choosing a name was straightforward.

He grew up on the clay courts around Barcelona, and although professing that is his favoured surface, has enough class to prosper in all conditions.

Robredo's one singles title this year fittingly came in Barcelona in April, when he beat Argentine Gaston Gaudio in a five-set final.

His earnings for this year are just under US$850,000 and he's pocketed more than US$2.5 million in career prize money. His best Grand Slam performance came in last year's French Open when he made the last eight before falling to defending champion and fellow Spaniard Albert Costa in five sets.

He has twice represented Spain at the Hopman Cup mixed event in Perth, winning with Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in 2002, and he has a New Zealand link - he beat Davis Cup squad member Lee Radovanovich in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open junior singles in 2000.

Robredo is a newcomer to Auckland, and that was part of his attraction for the open organisers.

"People won't have seen him play, and that's one of the things we're looking for," Pearce added. "We want to keep building the tournament as much as we can. Three players in the world top 15 is a pretty fair effort."

The search is still on for at least one more top 20 player for the Open which has only one direct tournament clash, with the Sydney event.

There might be some scrambling from players to get to Auckland for the January 10 start. The three ATP events the previous week are in Adelaide, Doha and Chennai.

Tommy Robredo

Born: May 1, 1982, Hostalric, Spain.

Lives: Barcelona, Spain

Plays: Righthanded

Turned pro: 1998

Height: 1.80m

Weight: 74kg

World ranking: 12

Titles: Two singles (Sopot, Poland, 2001, Barcelona this year), one doubles (Chennai this year)

Career earnings: US$2.5 million