One of the Best Fields Ever for 2008 Heineken Open
The 2008 Heineken Open looks set to be one of the best ever with seven players ranked in the top-30, six current or former top-10 players, two Grand Slam winners, three past champions and a rising star all confirmed today.
The January 7-12 event will be the tenth anniversary of Heineken sponsorship and is certain to provide top international tennis.
Chasing the Sovereign singles title will be defending champion David Ferrer of Spain who just two weeks ago was a finalist at the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai and is ranked at No5 in the world after stunning results in 2007 highlighted with him making the semis at the US Open.
The second ranked player will be Argentine Guillermo Canas at No15 followed by countryman, Juan Ignacio Chela who was a quarter-finalist at the US Open and is currently ranked at 20.
There are four more players ranked between 20 and 30 with another Argentine, Juan Monaco at 23, then 2003 Roland Garros winner and former world No1 Juan Carlos Ferrero at 24.
Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen is at 27 and Spaniard Nicolas Almagro 28.
The likely eighth seed will be Italian Potito Starace at 31 who is joined on that ranking by Xavier Malisse from Belgium who is entering on a protected ranking of 31.
Malisse, a former Wimbledon semifinalist (2002), has only played five tournaments in 2007, winning two of them - Delray Beach and Chennai. He also was the title winner at Roland Garros doubles title in 2004.
A notable entry is 2002 Australian Open winner, Thomas Johansson of Sweden who last played in New Zealand in 2001 where he reached the quarter-finals.
The 32-year-old has been ranked as high as No7 in the world and has nine career singles titles to his credit and five finalist finishes including Stockholm this year.
Johansson is coached by countryman Magnus Norman the 2000 winner of the Heineken Open.
Another Swedish veteran who has a history in Auckland is Jonas Bjorkman. At 35 he is the oldest in the top-100, but has the titles and career ranking which shows him to still be one of the best.
Bjorkman has been a Grand Slam semifinalist on two occasions most recently last year at Wimbledon. He has also reached the quarters at Grand Slams five other times.
In doubles he has 51 titles including nine Grand Slam wins.
He reached a highest ranking of No4 in the world in 1997, the same year he won the singles title in Auckland.
The other former winner at the Heineken Open is popular Finn, Niemimen who won the title in 2006 and is a two-time Grand Slam quarter-finalist.
Twenty-year-old American, Sam Querry is one of the rising stars on the ATP Tour and is one of the new young power-hitters standing at 1.98m (6’6”). His best result came at the Masters Series event at Cincinnati where he beat Juan Monaco and top-10 player Mikail Youzhny.
He had a semifinal finish at Indianapolis with a victory over top-10 ranked James Blake and also made the quarters at Las Vegas and Memphis. His first top-10 victory was over Tommy Haas at Delray Beach early this year.
Just outside the seedings is German Philipp Kohlschreiber at 32 in the world who won the Munich tournament with wins over five former or current top-20 players in 2007.
Kohlschreiber was also a semifinalist at Halle on grass and a quarter-finalist at five other events including the Masters Series at Monte Carlo and the Heineken Open where he defeated Luis Horna, Dominik Hrbaty before falling to Tommy Robredo.
“For our tenth anniversary Heineken Open tournament we were looking to bring together a strong field and today’s announcement of the confirmed entries realises that ambition. We are thrilled with the quality of players entered in the Sovereign singles,” says tournament director Graham Pearce.
The cut off for the 23 direct entries is Argentine Jose Acasuso at 65 meaning some very strong players such as Andrei Pavel, Nicolas Massu and Vice Spadea will have to go through qualifying if they want to make the main draw of the 2008 Heineken Open.
The Heineken Open featuring the Sovereign singles and doubles will be held at the ASB Tennis Centre, January 7 – 12, 2008 with the first two days of qualifying January 5 – 6, 2008 at the Albany Tennis Park, Oteha Valley Road, Albany starting at 10am each day.
The 2008 tournament will feature live scoring as well as live streaming of play and audio podcasts.
