Tennis: Champ Hrbaty to defend his title

Dominik Hrbaty will become the first player in 10 years to defend his singles title at the Heineken Open tournament in Auckland in January.

The athletic Slovak will follow Czech Karel Novacek, who was the last player to return the year after winning the Auckland title, which he did after his 1991 victory.

At this year's tournament, Hrbaty beat Spain's Francisco Clavet in a three-set final.

Hrbaty made steady progress through the field on his last visit to Stanley St.

After a straight-sets win over Italian Andrea Gaudenzi, he beat Argentine Mariano Zabaleta in three sets, Swede Thomas Johansson in the quarter-finals in three, then toppled crowd favourite Juan Balcells of Spain in the semifinals.

"This is great news to have the defending champion return," tournament director Graham Pearce said.

Hrbaty went on to have a solid year.

The week after Auckland, he beat Clavet again on his way to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.

He also dispatched Russian former world No 1 Marat Safin in the fourth round.

He made the semifinals of three tournaments - Dubai, Tashkent and Moscow - and progressed to the last eight of the claycourt event in Estoril, Portugal, picking up $US575,000 ($1.4 million) prizemoney.

In 1999, Hrbaty reached the semifinals of the French Open and won the Czech Open. Last year, he made three finals.

The 23-year-old joins Safin and Greg Rusedski, of Britain, as the players so far announced for next year's event.

He is ranked 36th on the ATP Champions Race, one below Rusedski.

Safin is the highest-ranked player, at No 11, to be a confirmed starter for the January 7-12 tournament.

- NZPA