Tennis: Peruvian has Andes to climb

Luis Horna was a loser and a winner in double-quick time yesterday.

The 25-year-old Peruvian, appearing in his fourth Heineken Open, was forced to play qualifying at an ATP tournament for the first time in a couple of years after his ranking, through injury, dropped to 85.

He lost his third-round match on an outside court yesterday to Raemon Sluiter (Netherlands) in a tight three-set battle.

But he was then handed a place in the singles main draw as the lucky loser taking the spot that became vacant when Mark Philippoussis withdrew and allowed Florian Mayer to be elevated into the main draw as the top-ranked player on the qualifying list.

Horna, as the highest-ranked of the four losers in yesterday's final qualifying round, was automatically given the spot.

"I knew once Ivo Minar and Jan Hernych won, I was the next highest-ranked player and would get into the main draw," said Horna who reached a career-high 33 in August 2004.

"This is my first tournament of the year so it is good to get these extra matches."

But the good news was short-lived when Horna drew top seed Fernando Gonzalez (Chile).

That first-round match will be third on stadium court this afternoon.

Gonzalez, who was hitting with Horna in the days leading up to the Open, has a 3-0 winning advantage - all on clay - with the last a straight-sets first-round romp in 2004.

The other players to win through from qualifying had mixed fortunes. Italian Federico Luzzi meets second seed David Ferrer on an outside court today.

The other three qualifiers, Minar, Hernych and Sluiter, were all drawn against unseeded opponents for outside court matches today.