12:30 pm
British sixth seed Greg Rusedski will play second seed Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia in the quarterfinals of the Heineken Open later today.
Meanwhile, top seed Marat Safin, of Russia, is out of the tournament after losing his second round singles match against Swede Jonas Bjorkman 3-6, 6-4, 3-6.
Rusedski came from a set down to beat Czech Michal Tabara 5-7 7-5 6-4 in their rain interrupted second round singles match this morning.
The pair took the court at Stanley Street mid-afternoon yesterday, but were forced into the locker room because of persistent rain soon after Tabara clinched the opening set.
Rusedski had broken Tabara’s opening game in the second set, but then dropped his own service in this morning’s first game to lose his advantage.
However with the scores tied at 5-5, Rusedski got the critical break to edge ahead and serve out the set.
In the third set, with Tabara becoming increasingly frustrated at the crowd’s obvious support for Rusedski, the Czech again dropped serve at a crucial time, double-faulting to give Rusedski the 5-4 lead.
Ivanisevic yesterday won his rain interrupted second round singles match in three sets against Russian Mikhail Youzhny, and has a 9-0 winning record over Rusedski.
New Zealand wildcard entry Mark Nielsen bowed out of the singles today.
After upsetting seventh seed Andreas Vinciguerra on Monday, Nielsen was today no match for Michel Kratochvil of Switzerland, who is ranked 46 in the world, almost 400 places higher than Nielsen.
Nielsen began well, breaking Kratochvil’s opening service game, but then dropped his serve straight away and made too many unforced errors under the Swiss pressure.
Nielsen is still to play in the doubles quarterfinals, with fellow New Zealander James Shortall. Their second round opponents are yet to be determined.
Top seed Marat Safin of Russia and Swede Jonas Bjorkman were to resume their second round singles match soon.
Bjorkman had one service break and led 3-1 yesterday before heavy rain last night forced the play to be abandoned.
- NZPA
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