New Zealand's best players are to go head-to-head, with wildcards into the main draw of the country's premier men's event in January as incentives.
Organisers of the Heineken Open in Auckland have three wildcards to hand out. At least two will go to New Zealanders, but not necessarily thetwo with the highest international ranking.
New Zealand Davis Cup captain Bruce Derlin, in conjunction with Auckland Tennis, the Open organisers, will oversee a mini-tournament of the country's eight or nine best players at North Harbour from December 27 to 31.
The players will be split into two pools for round-robin play. The top four will then play off in crossover semifinals, with the two finalists guaranteed a wildcard and the winner of the third-fourth playoff having a chance of picking up the third wildcard.
In addition there are likely to be four entries into the qualifying draw on offer for the next best players.
In theory that could mean some Open activity for as many as seven of the New Zealanders.
But the interesting part for Derlin is it should give him a fresh insight into the relative merits of the country's best players with an eye on next year's Davis Cup commitments.
"It will give the younger ones a chance to prove themselves and gives the older ones a chance to say 'I deserve it, and that the younger guys aren't good enough yet'," Derlin said.
He has confirmed acceptances from six of the country's leading nine players - Mark Nielsen and Simon Rea, of North Harbour, Auckland's Lee Radovanovich and William Ward, Dan King-Turner, of Canterbury, and Wellington's Matt Prentice.
Derlin is awaiting word on the participation of three other Aucklanders, Adam Thompson, GD Jones and Reuben Statham.
There's a financial incentive for the players. A first-round loser in the Open picks up US$3900 and five ATP points. The qualifying starts on January 8 and the first round of the main draw begins two days later.
Derlin, just getting over the fallout from the disastrous Davis Cup loss in Pakistan, wants to see how the players handle the pressure of the occasion and assess their temperament.
