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Kiwi wildcards Rubin Statham and Dan King-Turner will be in action on day one of the men's Open, and rising Japanese star Kei Nishikori will take on former world No 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero in a showpiece first-round centre court clash.
King-Turner, who narrowly avoided having to qualify
for the Heineken Open after inheriting Nishikori's wildcard when the teenager made the cut off by virtue of his ranking, faces big-serving American Sam Query in the second match on centre court.
Tournament director Richard Palmer initially opted not to grant King-Turner a wildcard after his ranking slipped to 463 last season.
The final wildcard initially went to two-time champion Dominik Hrbaty, a player whose ranking has slipped outside the top 200, but who looked to be recapturing his best form in helping Slovakia to the Hopman Cup title last week.
That decision left King-Turner out in the cold but, when Nishikori's wildcard became available, Palmer opted to grant a second Kiwi direct entry into the tournament. "He knows he got lucky so we'll see what happens," Palmer said.
King-Turner could not quite finish a golden opportunity to beat world No 20 Juan Ignacio Chela last year but he said he had derived plenty of positives out of that narrow three-set defeat.
"Last year gave me a lot of confidence to go out and play. I'll try to use the experience gained from last year for this time."
The 2008 season had been an up-and-down affair, he said. "I had a couple of career-best wins but, unfortunately, lost more than I won. I have to serve well, it's a big part of my game."
Kiwi No 1 Statham takes on American journeyman Robby Ginepri in the first match of the night session.
Statham, now at 414 in the rankings, overtook King-Turner for the country's No 1 slot last year.
Ginepri is ranked 49 but has been as high as 15 and had banked just under US$3 million ($5 million) in prize money in his seven-year career.
By contrast, Statham has won just $49,962.
The draw has thrown up a number of intriguing battles, which could see several big names spending limited time in Auckland.
The defending champion, Philipp Kohschreiber, will play Hrbaty in the first round, and Latvian 19-year-old Ernests Gulbis will face top seed and world No 9 Juan Martin del Potro in the second round if he gets past Spaniard Marc Granollers in the first assignment.
The four top seeds - del Potro, David Ferrer, Robin Soderling and Nicolas Almagro - all have first-round byes.
Del Potro hit the courts straight after arriving from Argentina yesterday.
"We are a little bit tired, but I am fine," he said. "It's the first tournament of the year, I hope to do my best. I did my best year of my life [last year] but I have to play well to beat Federer, Nadal and Murray if I want to be in the top five in the next couple of months."
Barring a shock hometown victory by King-Turner or Statham, the highlight of the first day should be Nishikori's match against last year's beaten finalist Ferrero.
"I saw him [Ferrero] when I was little, he was one of my heroes," Nishikori said, after being drawn against the Spaniard and being forced indoors to practise yesterday.
The winner will meet the winner of the clash between Kohschreiber and Hrbaty.
Seventh seed Albert Montanes of Spain will meet a qualifier tomorrow and eighth seed Juan Monaco faces 48th-ranked Romanian Victor Hanescu.
