6.00pm
Defending champion and third seed Gustavo Kuerten scraped through his opening match of the Heineken Tennis Open in Auckland today.
The Brazilian took out his marathon first round match 6-7, 7-6, 7-5 against Spain's Alex Corretja.
The match was a real tussle with Kuerten fighting back from losing a tiebreak in the first set and breaking Corretja's serve when the Spaniard served for the match at 6-5 in the second set.
Eighth-seed Jarkko Nieminen was not so lucky, beaten 6-1, 6-4 by French veteran Fabrice Santoro.
But sixth seed Gaston Gaudio from Argentina scored a straight sets win over Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic.
- Newstalk ZB
Tennis: Kuerten survives tough opener at Heineken Open
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