Tennis: Statham may be best hope for Kiwis

World No 15 Nicolas Almagro, of Spain, practising at the ASB tennis stadium in Auckland yesterday. Photo / Steven McNicholl

There will be a clutch of New Zealanders in action but it would take a supreme optimist to suggest the first day of the Auckland Men's Tennis Open will turn out to be the day of the Kiwi.

While it might be nice to think a fairytale run to rival Marcus Daniell's enthralling march to last year's Heineken Open doubles title might be in its infancy, the grim reality is that today's centre court action is an absolute monty for a certain beer advertising campaign: "Today's the day New Zealand men's tennis puts itself back on the map." You know the punchline.

A harsh assessment - and plenty will argue Rubin Statham's efforts in battling his way to the final round of qualifying deserve a more positive spin - but there is no escaping the fact that even a solitary victory from the three matches featuring locals would be a major shock.

Given that Michael Venus, the only Kiwi to receive a main draw wildcard, has drawn former top five player Tommy Robredo, Statham looks the mostly likely candidate to produce a rare Kiwi singles centre court victory.

Spaniard Pere Riba, at 72 in the world, is a whopping 379 places ahead of Statham in the rankings.

Statham's hopes lie in such intangibles as his opponent not knowing anything about him, his familiarity with Auckland's centre court and the support of a home town crowd.

After a largely disappointing season that saw him perform brilliantly in Davis Cup but slide in the professional rankings, Statham has at least found some form for his home event.

In the first round of qualifying he knocked off Dutchman Matwe Middelkoop in three tough sets, while yesterday he accounted for 115th-ranked American Ryan Sweeting. Statham lost the first set of that match 3-6 but was winning the second 5-2 when Sweeting retired.

While that effort hardly qualifies as world beating, it stacks up pretty well alongside the efforts of Dan King-Turner, Artem Sitak, Oliver Statham and Daniell, who failed to win a set between them in singles qualifying.

With two of the three wildcards going to world No 15 Nicolas Almagro and last year's beaten finalist Armand Clemont, Venus, the top-ranked New Zealander at 328, is the only Kiwi to be granted a direct berth in the main draw.

While that situation ensures there will be no repeat of last year's low-quality affair between King-Turner and Statham, it also strongly mitigates against the presence of a local player in the second round. To buck that assessment, the big-serving Venus will need to overcome Robredo, a player who has slid some distance from his top ten days but still has a lot further to fall before he finds himself regularly battling the game's 300-and-somethings.

"He's a great player," said Venus of the Spaniard.

"I'm excited to play against someone like him. I'll give it my best. What happens, happens. I'm a little bit nervous, but I'm ready to play.

"I'll have to put in a lot of first serves and to get some free points will be great."

Robredo is the only real class act of the day session, although the second match between Colombian Santiago Giraldo and Spaniard Daniel Gimeno Traver projects as the most likely source of a tight contest.

Daniell, who has battled injury of late and required a wildcard to get into the draw, gets his chance to defend his doubles title alongside Russian immigrant Kiwi Sitak in the final match of a Kiwi-heavy day session.

With the top four seeds receiving first round byes and many of the big guns such as defending champ John Isner not expected to arrive in Auckland until as late as Tuesday, organisers had little choice but to rely on a home town challenge to carry the opening day.

Chances are they won't have that luxury tomorrow.

If today's matches play out as expected, the remaining Kiwi challenge will be in the hands of the doubles pairing of the Statham brothers. They have drawn top seeds Horea Tecau - who partnered Daniell to the title last year - and his regular partner Robert Lindstedt, one of the best-performed doubles combinations of 2010.