Tennis: Open is ready for Norman conquest

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Former champion Magnus Norman has been handed a wildcard into next month's Auckland international tournament - and that offers the prospect of a tough first-round clash for one of the eight seeds.

The Swede's wildcard entry for the January 6-11 Heineken Open was confirmed last night by tournament director Graham Pearce and brings the total of former winners in the field to five.

The other four former winners are world No 7 Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic (who won in 1996), Dutchman Sjeng Schalken (1999), Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia (2001) and Swede Jonas Bjorkman (1997).

In this year's Open, wildcard Michael Chang met top seed Marat Safin in the first round of the Vodafone-sponsored singles. Yet in 2000, former Grand Slam winner Chang had lost a thrilling final to Norman.

Norman, who had a severely curtailed schedule this year as he battled injury, returned to form late in the season. He reached the final of October's ATP Tour event in Tokyo where he lost to Kenneth Carlson after beating Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero and American Taylor Dent (who has already been confirmed to play here).

While his world ranking has dropped to 107, Norman is seen as a dangerous floater.

After beating Chang at the ASB Bank Tennis Centre, Norman went on to reach a career-high ranking of No 2 in June 2000.

Norman, 26, reached the Australian Open semifinals at the next stop on the tour after his win in Auckland. In that golden year, Norman also played the French Open final, losing in four sets to Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten, three times the French Open champion, who is set to be the fifth seed here next month.

Norman joins seven other players who have reached the semifinals or finals of Grand Slam tournaments. Indeed, three of the top four headed for Auckland have made at least the semifinals of Grand Slams this year.

World No 7 Novak reached the semifinals in Australia; Argentine David Nalbandian lost the Wimbledon final to Lleyton Hewitt; and Schalken lost his US Open semifinal to eventual winner Pete Sampras. Apart from Kuerten, the other three players with Grand Slam top four appearances are Bjorkman, Spain's Felix Mantilla and Hrbaty.

"It is a pleasure to welcome Magnus back, " said Pearce. "He has had a terrible time with injuries, but is now strongly on the comeback trail as evidenced by his end of season results. He adds yet further strength to what is already our best field ever."

Pearce took some pleasure from Mikhail Youzhny's outstanding win to seal victory for Russia in this week's epic Davis Cup final in Paris. The Russian lost to Goran Ivanisevic in the second round of this year's Open on his way to a career-high end of season ranking of 32 - he was No 56 in Auckland in January.

"You see them all here first," Pearce added, pointing out Nalbandian played here this year before his Wimbledon march.

Pearce must allocate two more wildcards, but these are likely to be held until much closer to the Open. The main draw will be made on January 4. The eight seeds are likely to be: Novak, Nalbandian, Fernando Gonzalez (Chile), Schalken, Kuerten, Jose Acasuso (Argentina), Jan-Michael Gambill (US) and Guillermo Coria (Argentina).