Tennis: Top-10 star on the way

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Don't count on Gustavo Kuerten, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Lleyton Hewitt and Pat Rafter turning up, but at least one present top-10 player is expected on court at the Auckland international open tournament in January.

Tournament director Graham Pearce refuses to say who will play in the Heineken Open, but confirmed that he has a verbal agreement with one of the world's top 10.

"Until the documents are signed, we won't say anything," Pearce said yesterday.

"Given the events in the United States in the past few days, things have slowed down, but we would hope to name our top players either late next month or early in November."

While the big-name players are unlikely to play at Stanley St, world No 5 Juan Carlos Ferrero, of Spain, Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov (No 6), Russian Marat Safin (No 7) - who played in Auckland in 1999 when he lost to New Zealander Brett Steven in the second round - England's Tim Henman (No 8) and Spaniard Alex Corretja (No 11) must rate as targets on Pearce's wish-list.

Pearce said that as well as a top-10 player, he was aiming for a second player in the top 20, but again refused to be drawn.

Among those possibilities are Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic, although the Croatian may well now have priced himself out of the Auckland market.

American teenage sensation Andy Roddick - already up to No 15 on the ranking list - is a possibility, as are Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean (No 9) and Swiss No 1 Roger Federer.

Hewitt and Rafter rule themselves out because top Australians prefer to play lead-up tournaments at home ahead of the Australian Open.

Having a top-ranked player at Stanley St is nothing new. Chilean Marcelo Rios was the world's No 1 when he signed to play there and was still in the top three at the time of the 1998 tournament.

Defending champion Dominik Hrbaty, of Slovakia, ranked 28, is a likely starter. Sjeng Schalken is another who could return for the January 7-12 tournament.

The line-up for the ASB Bank women's classic, from December 31 to January 5, is still being drawn up.

However, defending champion American Meilen Tu appears a certainty, because players on the Women's Tennis Association tour are expected to defend the first title they win.