KEY POINTS:
The story of David Ferrer's tennis life is all up.
The Spaniard has improved his season-end ranking each year since 2003 and gave a hint on how he's done it when the Heineken Open began in Auckland yesterday.
World No 14 Ferrer won a war of attrition against former French Open champion, Argentine Gaston Gaudio, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 which took a tick under 2 1/2 hours.
If you put the pair on a clay court and made it best-of-five sets, you'd pack a pillow because the first set showed why Ferrer referred to their clashes as "always tough".
Translation: a baseline version of Last Man Standing.
Ferrer, whose previous two visits to Auckland have produced quarter-final appearances, is a runner and wears opponents down. Gaudio is no serve and volley man either.
So, as neither player possesses the game's fiercest serve, at times spectators could have nipped out for a sandwich, coffee and comfort stop and returned to find the pair still banging away and the score still deuce.
Gaudio got the initiative in a 76-minute first set, but Ferrer, at 24 four years the younger, was on top in the second and ran away with it in the third as the Argentine exploded.
He smashed one racquet, frequently beat his chest and argued with his inner self. Ferrer was hardly cut out for the monastic life either, but as he put it, "we all go crazy sometimes".
Ferrer made light of his progress up the ladder.
"For three years I have played pretty good tennis and I am happy. But now it is a different year, more players, more difficult," he said.
Top seed Tommy Robredo eased into the second round last night, whizzing past compatriot Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo 6-2, 6-1 in 65 minutes in what often looked more like a practice session for the world No 7.
Hidalgo was broken early in both sets and Robredo was relentless.
"Yes, my first win here, and hopefully not my last, eh," Robredo said.
On his only previous visit, in 2005, he was dumped out in the first round by Dutchman Raemon Sluiter.
Robredo meets another Spaniard, Alberto Martin, in the second round tomorrow.
One seed bowed out yesterday, defending champion and fourth seed Finn Jarkko Nieminen, but one of the tournament's colourful figures, Frenchman Gael Monfils, departed spectacularly, 6-4, 6-4 against the durable Martin.
Martin wisely figured out early that if he kept his head he'd be okay. Monfils, 20, tall and with a gangly gait befitting an NBA star, won't die wondering, with his rocket serve all speed and no radar.
He almost winged a linesman with one bullet and played some staggering shots, in between the boo-boos.
The day began badly with a lousy display from Serb Janko Tipsarevic.
He lost an entertaining first set to Belgian Kristof Vliegen in a tie break and once he was broken at the start of the second set packed it in. He won just five points in that set, which took only 17 minutes.
The pros call it "tanking". On this effort, Tipsarevic, who reads Goethe and Nietzsche in his spare time and therefore presumably has a theory on why it all went sour, shouldn't be hanging out for a return invitation.
"It was good that I won, but it would have been better if he played a little better in the second set," world No 31 Vliegen said with a dose of understatement.
Vliegen's ranking gives a pointer to the strength of the Open. In past years, that ranking would have guaranteed him a seeding.
New Zealand's Dan King-Turner starts his Open today, against Argentine qualifier, and fellow 22-year-old, Juan Monaco, the world No 71.
The day's intriguing match-ups include former French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero against Chilean Nicolas Massu, and an all-Argentine old vs new clash between world No 29 and Open seventh seed, 30-year-old Agustin Calleri and Juan Martin Del Potro, 18 and ranked No 91, one of the game's up and comers.
TODAY'S SCHEDULE
* Centre court, from 11am: Q-Woong-Sun Jun (Korea) v 5-D. Hrbaty (Slovakia) followed by 6-J.C. Ferrero (Spain) v N. Massu (Chile) followed by S-J.M. Del Potro (Argentina) v A. Calleri (Argentina) followed by D. King-Turner (NZ) v Q-J. Monaco (Argentina) followed by, but not before 7pm Q-L. Rosol (Czech Republic) v 2-M. Ancic (Croatia) followed by WC-R. Statham/O. Statham (NZ) v WC-J. Nieminen (Finland)/King-Turner
* Court 4, from 11am: 8-S. Wawrinka (Switzerland) v N. Almagro (Spain) followed by D. Bracciali (Italy)/Hrbaty v G. Simon/F. Serra (France) followed by Almagro/D. Ferrer (Spain) v 3-M. Garcia/S. Prieto (Argentina) followed by O. Rochus/K.Vliegen (Belgium) v A. Martin (Spain)
* Court 6, from 11am: N. Mahut (France) v J.I. Chela (Argentina) followed by Q-R. Kendrick (US) v M. Fish (US)
