By TERRY MADDAFORD
Dominik Hrbaty should not feel too bad about his early exit at Stanley St yesterday.
The defending champion and the eighth seed at the Heineken Open is in pretty good company.
Not since New Zealander Onny Parun, in 1975 and 1976, has a player successfully defended his title. In the intervening 26 years, only American Tim Wilkison - in 1979 and 1982 - has been a two-time winner.
Hrbaty, first on court - the tasty curtainraiser to the day's big action - began well enough against Belgian qualifier Gilles Elseneer, who had been taken to two tiebreakers by young New Zealander Simon Rea in the first round of the qualifying tournament.
He broke Elseneer (two double faults) in the sixth game and, despite struggling to hold his own serve in the ninth, won the first set 6-3.
But it was all downhill from there for the Slovakian.
Broken in his first two service games, Hrbaty never recovered, losing 6-3, 1-6, 2-6 in 81 minutes.
"I like to have some fun on the court," said Elseneer, who went into the match with an ATP ranking of 205, compared to Hrbaty's 36. "I did not have a game plan. I just play my game."
Of Hrbaty's second-set surrender, Elseneer said: "I don't know what happened. He made so many mistakes. I'm happy."
For a time, it appeared Hrbaty, of Slovakia, might have been joined on the plane out by fourth seed and 1999 champion Sjeng Schalken.
After taking the first set 6-2 from unseeded Spaniard Galo Blanco on a back court, Dutchman Schalken dropped the next 3-6, but recovered to take the third by the same score.
Fifth-seeded Czech Jiri Novak also kept his chances of a second title alive with his first-up 7-5, 6-3 win, again on an outside court, over Italian Andrea Gaudenzi.
Novak, the 1996 champion, meets unseeded Spaniard Fernando Vicente today.
There was more than passing interest in the clash between American qualifier Robby Ginepri and the unseeded Michel Kratochvil (Switzerland). The winner will meet New Zealand hope Mark Nielsen on centre court today.
Ranked 46th in the world, Kratochvil was too strong for Ginepri (211), winning 6-3, 6-2.
Looking ahead, Kratochvil said he expected a battle with Nielsen.
"I watched a little of his game with Vinciguerra, but I did not expect him to win," Kratochvil said. "I have seen him [Nielsen] play satellite tournaments in the past, but not much lately. It was a great win. Playing on centre court will be nothing new, but I know they are going to support him. The crowd here is very fair, though."
Regular Spanish visitor Felix Mantilla was taken to a tiebreaker in the first set of his match with Austrian Stefan Koubek, but raced through the second 6-2 in front of a reasonable back-court crowd at the ASB Bank Tennis Centre.
Centre court was full, but organisers sold a couple of hundred ground tickets, which ensured good crowds for the high-standard matches out back, which included two seeds and three former champions.
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