The majority of seeded players won easily when the New Zealand Residential championships began at North Harbour yesterday - but amid the familiar faces a new one drew most of the attention in the women's draw.
Wellington's Candice Quirk attracted more than passing interest as she stepped on court to play second seed Tracey O'Connor. Quirk was playing her first competitive match yesterday, and as it transpired, exited early, losing 6-3 6-3 to the Fed Cup representative.
But the curiosity value in Quirk came from her background. She was reputed to be one of the hardest-hitting women in the country, at training anyway.
She had been practising in Wellington with men and wanted to play in the men's top grade. But she had no track record and was told she had to play with the women. She decided against that, until yesterday.
But the 21-year-old with the mystery woman tag discovered that all power and no precision bring problems.
O'Connor, ranked 442 in the world, was not in her best form, but showed that movement and placement are better than sheer power.
Quirk's father, Merv, said a lack of court time may have been part of the loss. He has been mapping out his daughter's career in the hope of mirroring the celebrated Williams sisters, Venus and Serena. Neither of them was allowed to play tournaments for years and instead practised continuously.
"It didn't help our plans that we didn't get any match practice," he said.
"It wasn't the result we wanted, but Tracey played well. We want to play tournaments now, but we'll see what happens. There are some people in Australia who want to have a look at her."
The top New Zealand woman, Pavlina Nola, played her first game against Kairangi Vano - who only turned 12 this month.
She took Nola by surprise - asking for the professional's autograph after the match.
Nola did not drop a game but found that Vano could hit some solid-looking forehands.
"There are so many talented players here hopefully they are recognised.
"Every match I'll take as it comes and use it as practice for the ASB Classic," she said.
In the men's draw, sixth seed Simon Rea and seventh seed Nick Turner were pushed by Henry Gers and Matt Simpson respectively. James Greenhalgh had to work for his points against Gareth Dowdell from the Bay of Plenty.
Though the women's third round looks relatively easy for the top players, the men's draw has some tough games today.
Second seed Robbie Cheyne plays Andrew Turner, who was a beaten finalist two years ago, Greenhalgh faces junior whiz-kid G D Jones, Nick Lane plays Mark Thompson and top seed Mark Nielsen meets talented Wellingtonian Mark Paulik.
Tennis: All eyes on mystery girl
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