Tennis: Del Potro at top of NZ wishlist

Organisers of New Zealand's premier men's tennis tournament hope US Open winner Juan Martin del Potro is superstitious.

The 20-year-old Argentine, who stunned the tennis world by toppling world No 1 Roger Federer in yesterday's final, is on Heineken Open boss Richard Palmer's list of targets for the Auckland event early in January.

Auckland has hosted players who have gone on to win Grand Slams - Bjorn Borg, Federer and Juan Carlos Ferrero among them, while Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten, the 2003 champion, arrived with three French Open crowns to his name.

But if del Potro returns he will be the first player in modern times to have won in Auckland and gone on to a Grand Slam title that year, and also to have come back here as a reigning US Open champion.

He won the Auckland title last January and Palmer spoke to him a couple of times while at the Open in New York.

Yesterday's result hasn't helped Palmer's chances.

In the men's game players' agents call most of the shots. Put a Grand Slam title on the CV and the asking rate soars.

However, there are a couple of elements which Palmer is banking on as he prepares the groundwork for the January 11-16 tournament.

Some players like to return the following year to the scene of a success. In del Potro's case, he went on to reach the quarter-finals at the Australian Open last January, won his sixth singles title in Washington, before his big night out in New York yesterday.

Another is that some players have superstitions.

For any number of reasons they like particular tournaments, either because they have had success there, the atmosphere suits them or it has led to good things later in the year.

"He's a laid back guy and it's great that he won and he has really improved," Palmer said yesterday.

"But it is going to make it somewhat more difficult."

Palmer got good signals from del Potro's coach, Franko Davin, and his agent, Ugo Colombini, was frequently tapping him on the shoulder making it clear Auckland remains a contender for the new hero of the men's game.

"We are still in negotiations but I suspect the goalposts might have changed," Palmer said.

"It could happen. His coach liked it out here and hopefully that could work in our favour."

Auckland officials will need to come up with better financial terms and whether that ultimately remains a deal-breaker will depend on whether del Potro's people keep up their interest in returning.

Auckland has the Sydney International and the eight-man Kooyong exhibition in Melbourne for competition in their week.

There are no restrictions on how many top 20 players Palmer can sign. However certain assumptions can be made.

World No 2 Rafael Nadal's past form is such that he has the week off before the Australian Open and world No 3 Andy Murray is known to be heading to Sydney.

The Kooyong field includes Serb Novak Djokovic (No 4), Frenchman Jo Wilfried Tsonga (No 7) and Fernando Verdasco of Spain (No 9) among six top-20 players.

The eighth face on the Kooyong website is blanked with a giant question mark over it. However it bears a reasonable resemblance to Federer.

"There are five, possibly six players who are targets for us in the top 20," Palmer said.

Del Potro's ranking went from six to five after yesterday's win.

The final field for the US$480,000 ($683,275) tournament is released on December 2.