Tennis: Courting top players all part of the game plan

John Isner is wanted in Auckland. Photo / Steven McNicholl

Convincing John Isner to defend his Heineken Open title remains the priority but Richard Palmer has more names on his hit-list during the upcoming US Open.

The year's last Grand Slam event, which starts in New York on Tuesday morning (NZT), is the most important on Palmer's calendar. He attends the event every year to sidle up to both players and agents to convince them to play in New Zealand in January.

This year is the first time he's there as tournament director for the Heineken Open and ASB Classic, which makes his task doubly hard. He has previously been tournament director for the women's event for 12 years and the men's for two but this year combined both.

Isner, who went on to win the longest professional tennis match in history against France's Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon, will be one of his chief targets. The big-serving American made a breakthrough in Auckland, winning his first ATP Tour tournament, vowed to return next year but has not yet confirmed his attendance.

Palmer is also expected to chase former Heineken Open and US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro (ranked 10), Croatian Marin Cilic (13), Russian Mikhail Youzhny (14), former world No 3 David Nalbandian (33) and Dutch up-and-comer Thiemo de Bakker (53).

Del Potro won the 2009 Heineken Open before then going on to win the US Open but has had a difficult 2010 with a wrist injury wrecking his season. He's still ranked 10th but hasn't played since January's Australian Open and is expected to plummet down the rankings. He would be a popular entrant in Auckland, even if he needed a wild card.

Neither Cilic nor Youzhny have played in Auckland before while Nalbandian was due to play this year but was injured and withdrew.

Palmer always likes to attract a young player with great potential, in the way the Heineken Open has featured Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Gael Monfils, and de Bakker fits that category. The 21-year-old is a former world No 1 junior and started the year at 96.

On the women's front, Palmer will want to cement defending women's champion Yanina Wickmayer (17) and regulars Elena Dementieva (13) and Aravane Rezai (20). Other possible targets include Yaroslava Shvedova (32), Tsvetana Pironkova (34) and even former world No 1 Dinara Safina (59) who has had a wretched time over the past couple of years but looks to be rebuilding her game.

This year's beaten finalist and world No 7, Francesca Schiavone, is unlikely because of her price tag following her success at the French Open.

"The US Open is always very important for me with a lot of meetings with players and agents," Palmer said. "This year I was fortunate enough to go to Wimbledon and start the ball rolling and now with the US Open it's about trying to firm up things with players and agents.

"I'm confident we will get some very good players and continue the high standards we have been getting for the last few years."