KEY POINTS:
AUCKLAND - Six players could face up to three matches tomorrow as Heineken Open tennis organisers try to catch up with matches lost to rain.
Tuesday's washout of matches means both the second round and the quarterfinals of the singles have been scheduled for today, as well as
the quarterfinals of the doubles.
It means six players still in both singles and doubles -- Olivier Rochus and Kristof Vliegen of Belgium, Spaniards David Ferrer and Nicolas Amlagro, Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia and Italy's Daniele Bracciali -- face a possible three matches today.
All, however, will be hoping the sporadic rain predicted for today does not happen and that the tournament can finish on schedule on Saturday.
It will be tough enough for singles contenders facing two matches tomorrow, but Chilean Nicolas Massu, who will play Juan Monaco of Argentina in the second round, says he's up to it.
"If I win tomorrow I have to play two matches in a row. It's not easy but physically I'm okay.
"It's very difficult to be all the day waiting and waiting but this is the life of a tennis player. You come here and you have to be able to play or not to play."
Massu caused the biggest upset on paper yesterday, beating sixth seed and former world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain.
But given that Massu is the Olympic champion and there's only 18 places between them in the world rankings it was not such a surprise.
Massu played aggressively, his high unforced error rate being superceded by a number of blistering winners which gives him confidence he can do well in the tournament.
"Last year I played the quarter-final and lost to (Jarkko) Nieminen and he won the tournament after," he said.
"Today I played really well and I feel I can do something big in this tournament but there's a lot of good players."
The only other seed to lose yesterday was eighth seed Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, beaten in three sets by Nicolas Almagro of Spain.
Safely through in straight sets were seventh seed Agustin Calleri of Argentina, fifth seeded former champ Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia and second seed Mario Ancic of Croatia.
But Hrbaty was stretched to 6-4 7-5 by Korean qualifier Woong-Sun Jun and last year's beaten finalist Ancic, ranked nine in the world, was taken to a second-set tiebreak by Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic before winning 6-3 7-6.
"Maybe this is his first ATP Tour game but soon I think I'll see him regularly," Ancic said of Rosol, who was ranked 288 going into the tournament.
"He's going to be a tough opponent for a lot of guys this year."
Ancic's second round opponent today will be American Mardy Fish, who is on the comeback trail after being injured most of last year. He won through by beating fellow American Robert Kendrick 6-2 6-4.
New Zealand's sole singles player Dan King-Turner, started well in both sets of his first round match against Argentinian qualifier Juan Monaco, leading 3-1 in the second set.
But the world number 71 always seemed to have an answer and he was too good for the 22-year-old New Zealander and closed out the match 6-3 6-3.
However, King-Turner will still play a part in the tournament as he and Jarkko Nieminen of Finland defeated New Zealanders Rubin and Oliver Statham 6-1 6-4 in their first round doubles match tonight.
They will play number one seeds Simon Aspelin of Sweden and Chris Haggard of South Africa today, weather permitting.
- NZPA