Tennis: Montanes full of respect for NZ opponent

Albert Montanes of Spain in action at the Heineken Open in Auckland today. Photo / NZPA

Spanish top 50 player Albert Montanes says he has plenty of respect for New Zealander Rubin Statham, who he plays in the second round of the Heineken Open tennis tomorrow.

Montanes, the eighth seed, confirmed his position in the second round after he beat 21-year-old Australian qualifier James Lemke 6-1 7-5 in their first round clash today.

Montanes raced away with the first set but Lemke put up more of a fight in the second, bravely footing it with Montanes from the baseline.

But Lemke struggled to hold his serve throughout and dropped his serve in the 12th game of the set to hand the match to Montanes.

It was just the second win for the world number 31 in his fifth appearance in the Auckland tournament. His previous win came when he beat Statham 6-4 6-4 two years ago.

Montanes said Statham, ranked 332 before this tournament, played well in that match and he expected the New Zealander would be hard to beat.

"Tomorrow will be a very tough match because he plays very well. He has a good serve, he has very good ground strokes."

Montanes, 29, says he is aware Statham will have the crowd support but was confident he could overcome it.

"I have faced this situation many times over the years. I'm not going to think about it, I'm going to play my game."

Statham, a first-round winner over fellow New Zealander Dan King-Turner yesterday, will be attempting to become the first New Zealander to win a second-round match at Auckland since Brett Steven beat Marat Safin in 1999.

Meanwhile, sixth seed Juan Monaco took just 63 minutes to dispose of fellow Argentine Horacio Zeballos 6-3 6-0.

Monaco ran well and was particularly harsh on Zeballos' second serve, winning 16 of the 24 points.

Monaco said he was also particularly pleased at serving six aces.

"I was very happy because it is not my weapon," he said.

"I usually serve well but not aces. My weapon is usually the way I run and I am very solid from the baseline."

Monaco said he practices with Zeballos and didn't expect to win easily.

"I played very well," he said. "Maybe he has a very bad day."

Monaco will play John Isner in the second round after the big-serving American came from a set down to beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain.

The Argentine said after his win that he would have preferred to play Garcia-Lopez, who he had beaten at two of their three previous meetings.

"Isner is very difficult because you can't get any rhythm going against him. He just serves very well."

In other first round contests, Michael Lammer of Switzerland scored a 1-6 6-2 6-4 win over fellow qualifier Daniel Evans of Great Britain, and Simon Greul of Germany beat Paolo Lorenzi of Italy 6-3 6-3.

Lammer will play third seed Juan Carlos Ferrero in the second round, while Greul will play top seed Tommy Robredo.

- NZPA