Organisers of the Heineken Open have today announced the strongest event line-up, with seven of the Top 20 players in the world set to converge on Auckland this January.
Joining the already announced four-time Heineken Open champion David Ferrer (10), Ernests Gulbis (13), Kevin Anderson (16), Tommy Robredo (17), Gael Monfils (18), defending champion John Isner (19), and Dominic Thiem (39); will be world number 15 Roberto Bautista Agut, eighth seed Santiago Giraldo (32), Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (36), Steve Johnson (37), 2014 Finalist Yen-Hsun Lu (38), and 2014 wildcard Jack Sock (42).
"To have seven players inside the world's Top 20 is an amazing feat. I'm not sure we will replicate this in a hurry!" says Tournament Director, Karl Budge.
Bautista Agut has had a career best year which has seen him earn the ATP Most Improved Player award for 2014. Kicking on from his semi-final appearance in Auckland (losing to eventual champion Isner), the Spaniard went on to beat Juan Martin del Potro, who was world number five at the time, in the second round of the Australian Open, before capturing his first ATP World Tour title in 's-Hertogenbosch.
His second title came quickly only weeks later in Stuttgart, and he reached the semi-finals in Madrid, where he met world number three Rafael Nadal.
He ended the year strongly being runner up to US Open champion Marin Cilic in Moscow.
Eighth seed Santiago Giraldo has also had a career best year, reaching four semi-finals (Vina del Mar, Houston, Kuala Lumpur and Shenzhen), a final in Barcelona, and had a dream run in the Masters 1000 level event in Madrid beating Andy Murray, Jo Tsonga and Lleyton Hewitt, en route to his first Masters quarter-final. He also made the semi-finals of the doubles in Kuala Lumpur alongside Kiwi number one, Michael Venus.
The 2015 tournament sees the return of American rising star, Jack Sock, who was a wildcard at the 2014 tournament, defeating world number 12, Tommy Haas, in straight sets to advance to the quarter-finals. Sock reached his first ATP World Tour semi-final this year, knocking out Heineken Open champion, John Isner in Newport, and followed that up with another semi-final appearance in Atlanta.