By TERRY MADDAFORD
This week is payback time for Greg Rusedski.
Grateful for the wildcard "kindly" handed him last year by Heineken Open boss Graham Pearce, the Briton with the booming serve was quick to put Stanley St on his 2002 roster.
Now through to this afternoon's final, where he will play Frenchman Jerome Golmard, sixth-seed Rusedski wants to go all the way.
Unlike yesterday's semifinal, where he broke a losing streak against fifth seed and former Open winner Jiri Novak 6-7 (6-8), 6-4, 7-6 (7-2), Rusedski takes a 4-0 winning record, stretching back to 1994, into his clash of the left-handers with Golmard.
At his last match before the Australian Open, where he is seeded 28th, Rusedski could be excused if his thoughts were elsewhere.
No way. "I'm not even thinking about Australia yet," said Rusedski, who was born in Canada to a British-born Canadian mother and Canadian father of Ukrainian descent. "I'm focusing on winning here."
The winner of 11 of the 21 ATP finals he has played in, Rusedski, 28, sees this as the chance to kick-start a year which, as he recovered from injury a couple of years ago, he identified as the start of a two-year bid for a first major.
"I have won at all levels - Challengers, ATP and Masters. Now I have to go after a Grand Slam.
"Wimbledon and the US Open, where I've been runner up [in 1997 to Australian Pat Rafter] are my best chances.
"But maybe I can do okay in Australia. I have worked hard to make myself a more complete player and with the Australian Open being played on the same [Rebound Ace] surface as we have here, who knows?"
Living in England for the past 10 or 11 years - his wife, Lucy, who was in Auckland this week, is English - has, he says, been no big deal.
"It was good for my tennis. My mother and I had British passports, so it was no problem. They have been very accepting and it has given me access to the Davis Cup and some support at Wimbledon.
"I don't see the switching of countries as the big deal it might have been in the past."
He and Tim Henman have provided a strong base for the British Davis Cup team with an unbeaten doubles record. Rusedski is 14-4 in singles.
Against Novak, Rusedski served seven aces to take his tally to a tournament-high 43.
In the 1h 54m match, which was interrupted by a couple of rain breaks and contained only one service break - to Rusedski in the first game of the second set after he lost the first 6-8 in a tiebreaker - the Briton gained his edge at the net.
In a sport often dominated by long baseline rallies, Rusedski is a revelation, happy to use his fitness and reach to put the pressure on his opponents. Against Novak, points won at the net were crucial.
The second semifinal was a pedestrian match, the 28-year-old Golmard needing just 70 minutes to send Swiss hope Michel Kratochvil on his way, 6-2, 6-2.
The Frenchman, who beat New Zealand No 1 Dan Willman first up, has reached the final without dropping a set and without playing a seed.
Rusedski has been taken to three sets in all four matches, including two against seeds Goran Ivanisevic and Novak.
"I think Michel was tired from yesterday," said Golmard, who came into the tournament ranked inside the world's top 50. "At 3-2 and 0-40, I played my best game of the match."
That was critical as Golmard went to 4-2, broke Kratochvil in the next and served it out.
Both players have been well-supported this week. That seems certain to continue in a final between a pair who have stood out in a fiercely contested tournament.
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