Tennis: Top Kiwi aiming for next level in Open

Dan King-Turner has gained valuable experience from his past four appearances at the Open. Photo / Greg Bowker

A string of first round defeats has Dan King-Turner hungry for more than just a token appearance in January's Open tournament in Auckland.

Tournament director Richard Palmer has once again granted the Kiwi men's number one a wildcard entry in to the main draw.

It will be King-Turner's fifth appearance at the Heineken Open, after never previously making it beyond the first round.

He came close in 2008, nearly pulling off an unlikely victory against second seed and, at the time, world number 20 Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina.

But otherwise King-Turner's record is a collection of unremarkable first round exits.

The 25-year-old Aucklander admits aside from the experience of playing some of the top names on the ATP circuit, there are few highlights from his Heineken Open appearances. But he is determined to change that in 2010.

"I've been fortunate to get the wildcard the past four years and a lot of that experience will help for this year. Those last four times have probably been more for experience, but this time with my ranking around the 250 mark I'm hoping to go a little better than just being out there for experience.

"It's obviously always tough playing someone who is probably inside the top 60 in the world, but I feel like my game has improved a lot in the last year, and I'm really looking forward to having the opportunity to play one of those guys."

King-Turner's added confidence heading in to the 2010 tournament is the result of a string of solid performances over the back half of the year. In the space of a year King-Turner's ranking has risen over 100 places to a career-high 257 due in large part to a productive four-week stint in South America playing Challenger tournaments, where he gained valuable experience playing against higher-ranked opposition.

"In the past I haven't really played anyone in the top 100 during the year until the Heineken Open came around. This year I managed to play [Chilean Nicolas] Massu in one of the challengers in Brazil and he's obviously been an Olympic gold medallist and very highly ranked so that was a great opportunity, and I also managed to beat a few guys around the 150 mark so it definitely does give me confidence going in to this year."

King-Turner will spend the coming weeks fine-tuning his game starting today at the New Zealand Residentials in Albany, followed by a challenger tournament in Noumea to try and squeeze in some extra match play before the Heineken Open.

King-Turner has also pencilled in the Australian Open qualifiers, but with that getting underway on January 13 - smack bang in the middle of the Heineken Open - the Kiwi number two may have to give Melbourne a miss if he makes it beyond the opening round.

Not that King-Turner would be at all worried if that were to be the case.

"Obviously if I won a round at Auckland it would probably be a good problem to have."