Tennis: Unseeded German through to quarters at Heineken Open

By TERRY MADDAFORD

His name hardly rolls off the tongue, but Philipp Kohlschreiber is making waves at this week's international Open.

The unheralded 20-year-old German is through to tomorrow's quarter-finals, booking a shot at unseeded Slovak Dominik Hrbaty, who had a walkover win over Guillermo Coria (Argentina) after the top seed withdrew through injury this morning.

After another day of surprises only Jiri Novak, Gustavo Kuerten and Vince Spadea of the eight seeds remain.

Being among the eight survivors in a tournament of this quality is uncharted territory for Kohlschreiber.

Although many of the players at the Heineken Open arrived from a break or ATP tournaments in Chennai, Doha or Adelaide, Kohlschreiber turned up for qualifying last week after elimination from a minor event in New Caledonia.

Tipped out in the quarter-finals of a US$50,000 challenger, Kohlschreiber was on court at the ASB Bank Tennis Centre on Saturday for his first qualifying match.

He won that in two sets, but then had to come back from a set down in his next two to make the main draw.

First up he saw off world No 64, Peruvian Luis Horna, then today took his 190-something ranking to a back court and in only 84 minutes saw off sixth seed and world No 34 Gaston Gaudio (Argentina) 7-6 (7-3), 6-1.

This less than six months after kick-starting his hardcourt career at the US Open, where he also won through qualifying before running into David Nalbandian.

Of tomorrow's pending first trip to centre court, he said: "I have only seen Hrbaty play on television. After beating a seed maybe I have a chance."

None of today's second-round matches went to three sets.

Kuerten was too strong for Spain's Albert Martin. After a tentative start - both players held serve, but not without some problems - Kuerten won the crucial third game.

Martin raced to 40-15, but Kuerten, without the support of the large Brazilian contingent with him on Monday, clawed back to deuce.

It was the first of nine deuces in a game that stretched to 25 points before Kuerten won and went on to take the set 6-2 and wrap it up 6-4 in the next.

"For sure that was a critical game," Kuerten said."

Fifth seed Spadea had few problems against qualifier Fred Hemmes, losing only three games.

The Kuerten v Spadea clash will be the only clash of seeds tomorrow.

In a battle of unseeded French survivors, Gregory Carraz beat Fabrice Santoro - seeded five places higher at 63 - 6-2, 6-4.

Dutchman Raemon Sluiter, lurking as a dangerous long-shot, continued on his winning way - again without dropping a set in beating Spain's David Sanchez.

It is Sluiter's third trip to Auckland - twice for qualifying.

"I won in the first round in Adelaide which means I had two matches before coming here," Sluiter said. "That is helping."

Novak saw off another of the qualifiers in beating Gilles Muller, but needed a first-set tiebreaker and 77 minutes to do it.

Doubles top seeds Mahesh Bhupathi (India) and Santoro will play their semifinal tomorrow night against well-performed Americans Jan-Michael Gambill and Brian MacPhie.