KEY POINTS:
The Heineken Open will go into catch-up mode today after yesterday was blighted by rain and the illness-enforced withdrawal of drawcard Mario Ancic.
A forecast of rain followed by showers suggested today could also be affected by weather but tournament director Graham Pearce was optimistic it would quickly
be back on track.
"Rain is always frustrating but we got a heap of time to catch up," Pearce said.
"It is frustrating to get a delay but in two weeks most tournaments anywhere in the world will get some rain."
When the rain does clear, top seed and defending champion David Ferrer will be first up on centre court. Ferrer was introduced for his match against fellow Spaniard Oscar Hernandez but neither player emerged from the tunnel before the rain came.
Ancic, who had been granted a wildcard into the tournament after a run of illness and injury saw his ranking plummet last year, has been suffering from a virus that also forced his withdrawal from a tournament in Adelaide last week.
The big-serving Croat had been due to play Juan Carlos Ferrero on centre court but withdrew on the advice of doctors. His place in the draw was taken by American Jesse Levine, a "lucky loser" who was beaten in the last round of qualifying.
New Zealand's interest in the tournament - playing-wise at least - is now confined to the doubles after qualifier GD Jones became the last of the locals to exit the singles, beaten in straight sets by Chilean Nicolas Massu before the rain set in early yesterday afternoon.
Jones, the first local to win through qualifying at Auckland in 21 years, joined Dan King-Turner and Rubin Staham as first-round casualties.
All three Kiwis are scheduled to be in first-round doubles action today. King-Turner and American partner David Martin's first-round match against Czech pair Ledos Friedl and David Skoch was postponed from last night. Jones and Statham are to take on Juan Monaco and Luis Horna.
Jones' singles match against fellow qualifier Massu was one of the few to take place yesterday. The plucky Kiwi held his own in the early stages against the former top ten-ranked Chilean. But Massu broke his serve for the first time at 4-4 and went on to serve out the set.
The second set was a more straightforward affair for the current Olympic champion, who broke Jones' serve three more times to close out the match 6-2 in 1hr 22mins.
Jones said the vastly more experienced Massu had made him pay dearly for his mistakes.
"I went in there with the right attitude, I just wasn't able to execute unfortunately," he said.
"I think I had the right game plan. I identified where I could maybe have success against a player like that but I just wasn't able to execute it late in the first set when I had the chance to maybe put some pressure on him.
"I missed some easy shots when I had control of points and then he stepped it up at the start of the second set and I wasn't quite able to match him. If there's anything I can take out of this it is that there is a level of tennis out there that I need to aspire to be able to play at a consistent level, not just be a flash in the pan."
German Philipp Kohlschreiber and Argentine Sergio Roitman both progressed to the second round. with straight sets victories.
