Tennis: Kohlschreiber rates his chances

Philipp Kohlschreiber. Photo / Steven McNicholl

Philipp Kohlschreiber thinks he's an improved tennis player from when he won the Heineken Open in 2008.

Unfortunately for him, he thinks all his opponents have improved as well.

The eighth-seeded Kohlschreiber continued his strong record in Auckland with a 2-6 6-3 6-1 first round victory yesterday over Carlos Berlocq of Argentina, a win achieved despite a very rusty first set.

He was near the peak of his form when he beat Juan Carlos Ferrero to win in 2008, form he continued later that month with a win over Andy Roddick in the Australian Open.

But though his ranking has fallen from the mid-20s in 2008 to 34 at present, he feels his game is now better all-round.

"I think I have improved a lot in many things, I'm approaching more to the net, I'm playing more aggressive, but also the other players, they've improved as well.

"Every year I think it's going to be tougher and tougher but I think if I hit the ball great I can beat everybody in the tournament."

Kohlschreiber looked set for an early exit after making numerous unforced errors in the first set and looking decidedly rusty.

"I was not 100 percent happy with the schedule, I arrived on Saturday so I was actually a little bit tired," he said.

"Then I started to play longer rallies and work my way back into the match and it was pretty good; I felt like I was getting more confidence, playing more shots and in the end it was a comfortable win.

"It's a hard time change but I'm happy to be through. If you win everything is fine."

Kohlschreiber's second-round opponent will be the winner of the match between Marcel Granollers of Spain and Bobby Reynolds of the United States.

The German was the only seed in action yesterday on day one of the tournament.

Today sees the remaining three seeds with first round matches - Thomaz Bellucci, Juan Monaco and David Nalbandian - play on centre court.

The top four seeds - David Ferrer, Nicolas Almagro, John Isner and Albert Montanes - have first round byes and will play their second round matches on Wednesday.

As well as Kohlschreiber advancing, the other familiar Heineken Open story yesterday was the defeat of the New Zealand contingent, though both singles players showed some fight.

Wild card entry Michael Venus took the first set off former world number five Tommy Robredo in a tiebreak, but the big-serving Aucklander lost his game from that point on and went out 6-7 6-3 6-0.

Venus, who admitted he felt drained physically in the last set, said he was not pleased to have lost but happy he competed as well as he did.

"I feel like the way I went out there showed me I can play with these guys," Venus said.

"But you need to be able to play at that level for three whole sets and not maybe physically tire in the third set. You need to be focused on every point."

Fellow-New Zealander Rubin Statham put up a similar effort in the final round of qualifying today, going down in three sets to world number 71 Pere Riba of Spain.

"I've worked really hard the last two months and it's starting to show. I was playing a high level out there but there's definitely still areas which I can improve, which is exciting," he said.

"Some areas of my game are world class and others I've got a long way to go so I know when I improve those certain areas I can play at that level for sure."

Another New Zealander, last year's doubles winner Marcus Daniell was also eliminated today.

Daniell, who was troubled by injury for much of 2010, and his new doubles partner, the newly-naturalised New Zealander Artem Sitak, went down 6-4 6-4 to Frantisek Cermak of the Czech Republic and Christopher Kas of Germany.

- NZPA