Second Day Of Action At Heineken Open 2009
The second day of this years Heineken Open promises another day of spectacular
tennis.
Fans arriving early at the ASB Tennis centre are in for a treat as by the quirk of the draw for the Sovereign Singles, defending Heineken Open champion and tournament fifth seed Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany) is pitted against long-time Auckland favourite Dominik Hrbaty in a promoter’s dream pairing.
On paper the stats favour the German who steps on court as world No 33 and the second-ranked player from his country behind Rainer Schuettler (at 31).
Hrbaty, on his 10th visit and a two-time winner, has watched his ranking fall away to 250 after an injury plagued 2008. Once as high as 12 (in 2004), Hrbaty is comfortably ahead of his opponent in the money stakes having amazed US $6.8 million while Kohlschreiber, on the ATP Tour for five less seasons, has prize money of US $2.2 million.
Head to head, Hrbaty is 3-1 although their clashes here have been shared with Hrbaty winning in three sets in qualifying in 2004 and Kohlschreiber in straight sets in their second round battle two years ago.
The German comes here after reaching the quarterfinals in Doha last week before being knocked out by Ivan Ljubicic. Eighth seed Juan Monaco heads the evenings action as the only other seeded player on centre court on day two.
Last year he reached the semis of the tournament with plenty of attention focused on his girlfriend, international model Luisana Lopilato.
The Argentine, ranked as high as 14 almost a year ago, meets top Romanian Victor Hanescu in what promises to be a tight tussle.
The only other seeded player to see singles court time today is Spanish seventh seed Albert Montanes who plays big-serving American qualifier John Isner in the second match on court four. Montanes, who won his first ATP title in Amersfoort last year and ended the year comfortably inside the world's top 50 is favoured to progress against Isner who comes in at 144-well down on his highest ranking of 81 in April last year.
