Tennis: Latin influence strengthens seedings for Open

By TERRY MADDAFORD

A strong South American influence and the return of four former winners have combined to make the field for next year's men's international the strongest ever.

The eight seeded players in the 32-strong Heineken Open in Auckland will come from the world's top 45, with the cut-off for the 23 players guaranteed direct entry into the main draw at 63 on ATP rankings.

In a first for the tournament, which will be played at the ASB Bank Tennis Centre in Stanley St from January 6-11, four of the world's top 20 will be here.

Czech Jiri Novak, the world's No 7, who won his first Tour title here in 1996 when he beat New Zealand's Brett Steven in the final, will be top seed.

Argentine David Nalbandian, is seeded second after a dream year which began in Auckland where he reached the quarter-finals before reaching the Wimbledon final.

Now ranked No 12 in the world, Nalbandian heads the promising South American challenge.

Rising Chilean star and world No 18 Fernando Gonzalez is the third seed, ahead of the 1999 champion, Dutchman Sjeng Schalken, who is ranked two places lower on the end-of-season rankings.

Former world No 1 Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten is seeded fifth, followed by the second of six Argentines, world No 41 Jose Acasuso.

Popular American Jan-Michael Gambill returns and will be seeded seventh between Acasuso and Argentine Guillermo Coria.

Two former champions, Slovakian Dominik Hrbaty (2001) and Swede Jonas Bjorkman (1997) will not be seeded, but will be "dangerous floaters" in the singles.

Bjorkman, a quarter-finalist at the Australian Open this year, has now played in 37 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments.

With partner Todd Woodbridge, Bjorkman is ranked as one of the world's top doubles players.

Three other Argentines, Augustin Calleri, Mariano Zabaleta and Nicolas Massu, will also be in action, and Spain will be well represented with six main draw players, headed by former top 20 competitor Felix Mantilla.

The field will be completed with four players from the January 4-6 qualifying tournament, three wildcards (of which one will almost certainly go to top-ranked New Zealander Mark Nielsen) and two "special exempts" who might come from a lead-up tournament.

Order of ranking (with world rankings in brackets):

Jiri Novak (Czech Republic) 1 (7), David Nalbandian (Argentina) 2 (12), Fernando Gonzalez (Chile) 3 (18), Sjeng Schalken (Netherlands) 4 (20), Gustavo Kuerten (Brazil) 5 (37), Jose Acasuso (Argentina) 6 (41), Jan-Michael Gambill (US) 7 (42), Guillermo Coria (Argentina) 8 (45), Davide Sanguinetti (Italy) 9 (46), Jonas Bjorkman (Sweden) 10 (48), Augustin Calleri (Argentina) 11 (50).

Dominik Hrbaty (Slovakia) 12 (51), Mariano Zabaleta (Argentina) 13 (53), Stefan Koubek (Austria) 14 (54), Felix Mantilla (Spain) 15 (55), Nicolas Massu (Argentina) 16 (56), Taylor Dent (US) 17 (57), Fernando Vincente (Spain) 18 (58), David Ferrer (Spain) 19 (59), David Sanchez (Spain) 20 (60), Alberto Martin (Spain) 21 (61), Feliciano Lopez (Spain) 22 (62), Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) 23 (63).