The 2009 Heineken Open qualifying draw starting Saturday 10 January will be one of the toughest ever with 11 players ranked inside the top-100 in the world.
The top seed in qualifying is Germany’s Philipp Petzschner who is ranked at 66 and was the singles and doubles winner at Vienna last year. The eighth seed Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci at 87 who plays Wellington’s Finn Tearney who has a couple of ranking points and is ranked at over 1000.
Former top-10 player Nicolas Massu of Chile, the Athens gold medalist is the fifth seed at 76. In 2008 he won through qualifying to grab a place in the quarters of the main draw.
Another notable player in qualifying is Vince Spadea. The veteran has been ranked as high as 18 in the world and is coached by former Italian pro Davide Sanguinetti. Spadea will take on Mathieu Rodrigues(France). American John Isner who stands at 2.05m and has a big reputation to go with his height faces Switzerland’s Michael Lammer.
Of the four remaining Kiwis Adam Thompson faces India’s Rohan Bopanna who is ranked a 332, while GD Jones who qualified last year plays 186th ranked Spaniard Miguel Angel Lopez Jaen.
Wairarapa’s Marcus Daniell plays 88th ranked Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain and Oliver Statham has the difficult task of taking on Argentine Diego Junqueira who sits at 77 in the world.
Qualifying starts at 10am at the North Harbour Tennis Park in Albany. A player needs to win three matches in qualifying to make the main draw.
Meanwhile Kiwi No2 Dan King-Turner has gained a late main draw singles wildcard after Japan’s Kei Nishikori did not require a wildcard as he moved into the draw as a result of the two special exempt places not being taken up. The second special exempt position goes to Taipei’s Yen-Hsun Lu ranked at 63.
New Zealand No1 Rubin Statham was earlier awarded a wildcard as was two-time former Heineken Open winner Dominik Hrbaty.
Singles main draw commences on Monday 12 January at the ASB Tennis Centre with the final Saturday 17 January.
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