A third top-20 player has been confirmed for the 2009 Heineken Open featuring the Sovereign singles and doubles with the announcement that world No18 Nicolas Almagro of Spain will appear in Auckland in January.
A super-consistent player over the past few years the 23-year-old has taken another step forward in his career by moving inside the top-20, peaking at No11 in July this year.
Far and away his best event has been at Valencia where in 2006 he won his first career singles title. He then defended the title the following year. In 2008 he came agonisingly close making it a three-peat before falling in the final to close friend David Ferrer in a third set tiebreak.
Known as one of the fittest and strongest players on the ATP circuit Almagro excels on clay but has had solid results on hard court too. However it was on the clay where he compiled a couple of great runs of form in 2008.
In a three week period in February he won his fourth career title by defeating Carlos Moya in the final of Costa Do Sauipe in Brazil. The next week he reached the quarters at Buenos Aires before he won at Acapulco in Mexico beating then No8 David Nalbandian in straight sets in the final.
Leading up to Roland Garros Almagro reached the final at Valencia, then third round at the Monte Carlo Masters Series, the quarters at Barcelona and the quarters at the Masters Series event at Rome in successive events.
At Roland Garros he won through to the last eight defeating Andy Murray along the way but it was the King of Clay, countryman, Rafael Nadal who stopped him in the quarterfinals.
During the US Open Almagro was involved in one of the great matches of the 2008 tournament going down to Gilles Muller in the third round 7-6(3) 6-3 6-7(3) 6-7(5) 6-7(6) 5-7 in just under four hours.
“Nicolas is our third top-20 player confirmed for the 2009 Heineken Open and a quality player at that. Clay may be his favourite surface, however he has the power and ability to do well in Auckland, especially since he has just had his best season on the circuit,” says Heineken Open tournament director, Richard Palmer.
Almagro has played in Auckland the last two years making the second round on each occasion.
Already confirmed for the Heineken Open are world No8 Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina and Spaniard David Ferrer ranked at No12.
The Heineken Open featuring the Sovereign singles and doubles will be held at the ASB Tennis Centre, January 12-17 – 12, 2009 with the first two days of qualifying January 10-11, 2009 at the Albany Tennis Park, Oteha Valley Road, Albany starting at 10am each day.
The 2009 tournament will feature live scoring as well as live streaming of play and audio podcasts.
www.heinekenopen.co.nz
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