Tennis: Nielsen follows exit with a blast at up-and-comers

Mark Nielsen exited the Auckland international event in the first round yesterday - then delivered a blast at the pretenders to his No 1 New Zealand ranking.

The 27-year-old toiled hard but was beaten 6-4, 6-4 by little-known Italian Potito Starace.

But anyone thinking the long-serving North Harbour player might now step aside gracefully for the younger brigade should think again.

"The way I see it is I am still No 1 and the younger guys have to step up and beat me," said Nielsen, ranked 617 in the world. "If they're not good enough I'll keep coming back."

And that's the big issue for New Zealand tennis, how to find the next Brett Steven or Kelly Evernden, a player good enough to compete on the world stage with credibility.

Behind Nielsen are a cluster of players aged 17-24, but none has emerged at the head of the pack.

They have also drawn attention to themselves in the past few months for outbursts of bad behaviour and Nielsen gave them a lash yesterday.

"There's a few young guys out there who have the talent. Unfortunately a lot of them don't understand ... how hard they have to work."

Nielsen, who has won two of his nine first-round matches at the Open, said they lacked commonsense and discipline towards their tennis. "Professionalism is lacking."

Of his own performance - in which he was broken once in the first set and twice in the second, but broke one Starace service game - Nielsen reckoned he played "quite well, but when you practise with the New Zealand guys for a few weeks then play the world's best it's a big jump".

Ninety minutes later he and Canterbury's Dan King-Turner were beaten by Argentinians Juan Ignacio Chela and Sebastian Prieto 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) in a first-round doubles match.

In the final match last night, the second New Zealander to receive a wildcard into the main draw, Auckland's GD Jones, lost to Argentine Mariano Zabaleta 6-0, 6-2.