Tennis: Ferrero prize signing for men's event

Sydney's loss is Auckland's gain with January's international men's tournament now boasting as good a field as it's ever had.

The signing of Spanish star Juan Carlos Ferrero yesterday may have come as a surprise for organisers of the Australian event running concurrently with Auckland, starting on January 10.

At one point, Sydney's website listed the former world No 1 as one of its drawcards. Instead, Ferrero will join two of his Davis Cup final team-mates, Tommy Robredo and Rafael Nadal, in the field for the US$404,000 ($561,141) Heineken Open.

"He was the sort of player we'd been targeting from early on and he wasn't sure what he was up to," tournament director Graham Pearce told the Weekend Herald yesterday.

When he agreed to return to Auckland - he played in the 2000 event, beating current world No 1 Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4 on his way to the quarter-finals - Pearce was delighted.

"He's a pedigree player, the cream on our cake," he said of a field which includes five players in the world top 21.

Pearce was unsure whether the presence of Robredo and Nadal in Auckland would have been a factor in the decision of last year's French Open champion to come here - "but it certainly wouldn't have hurt".

"The Spaniards like to move in a little group at times. There's a lot of them, they are highly competitive and he's obviously comfortable coming here."

Ferrero, winner of 11 ATP tournaments and over US$9.5 million, is the fifth player in recent years to have played in Auckland having already scaled the game's heights as world No 1. The others are Jim Courier, Marcelo Rios, Marat Safin and Gustavo Kuerten, and Pearce believes having Ferrero to complement a field spearheaded by world No 7 Guillermo Coria of Argentina can only help the open's standing as a high-quality event.

"It has a good reputation and people have seen solid fields over recent years. This carries on that tradition, continues the credibility of the event and it doesn't hurt for the following year," he said.

As the field stands, Ferrero will be no higher than sixth seed. That gives an indication of what awaits the fans in January.

Ferrero's French Open triumph last year came in a golden run of form for the 24-year-old ardent Real Madrid soccer fan, one of three children born in Onteniente, south of Valencia.

He racked up 10 of his 11 wins in a two-year period between April 2001 and 2003. He finished each of those three years in the world top five.

He was as hot as any player on the planet at that time. En route to winning the French Open last year, beating Dutchman Martin Verkerk in the final, he dropped just three sets in the course of seven matches.

But injuries this year have caused him to slip back to 31 in the rankings.

His big ambition next month is to help Spain win the Davis Cup final against the United States in Seville, before he heads to Auckland, then the Australian Open.

The initial full entry list for Auckland will be revealed on Wednesday.