Tennis: NZ hope bows out with honour

By TERRY MADDAFORD

New Zealand interest in the singles at the Auckland's women's tennis international lasted less than an hour, but not before Kiwi No 2 Leanne Baker showed the gap between the best and the rest might not be as great as world rankings sometimes suggest.

As expected, Baker offered only token resistance to ASB Bank Classic second seed Barbara Schett. But she had the satisfaction of taking the Austrian to 6-4 in the second set after losing the first 6-1 in 23 minutes.

Baker admitted to first-set nerves, but at times she tested Schett, using heavily top-spun shots to good effect.

"I was nervous in the first set and she did not give me any leeway," said Baker, who had hoped for an early but unlikely birthday present. She turns 20 next Monday.

"Once I settled down I felt better, but in the end she just outplayed me. She is a great player."

Baker, ranked 358, has her sights set on the top 200 by this time next year.

Schett said Baker made her work hard in the second set.

"Of course she can improve her ranking, but she will have to work on her serve and backhand," Schett said. "She had nothing to lose."

Asked whether she felt it was time to win the lion's share of the $US110,000 ($248,000) purse on her fifth attempt, Schett said simply: "Yep. Sooner or later I have to win, but I don't want to think about that right now."

Seeded players enjoyed one of their better opening days, with only third seed Nathalie Dechy losing.

She went out in three rain-interrupted sets to one of the lower-ranked main draw players, German Marlene Weingartner.

Ahead 5-2 in the first set, world No 26 Dechy was coasting, but Weingartner fought back to 5-5 before taking the set 7-5 in the tiebreak.

Dechy again reached 5-2 in the second, eventually taking it 6-4.

But after a drawn-out first game in the deciding set, Weingartner raced away to win 6-0.

"I was thinking about ten thousand things out there," Dechy said. "But not things happening on the court."

Fifth seed and defending champion Anne Kremer (Luxembourg) had no problems brushing aside Switzerland's Emmanuelle Gagliardi 6-2, 6-0, but sixth seed Paola Suarez (Argentina) lost a second-set tiebreak en route to her three-set win over Canadian Jana Nejedly.

Baker and Shelley Stephens provide New Zealand interest today in the first round of the doubles.

Singles top seed Sandrine Testud (France) plays the third match on centre court, against American qualifier Jill Craybas.