Tennis: Top seeds to face qualifiers

The two top seeds at the Heineken Open men's tennis tournament starting tomorrow will face qualifiers, following the release of the main singles draw last night.

Chile's Fernando Gonzalez, at No 11 in the world, and Spain's David Ferrer will have to wait until tomorrow to know who they will play.

New Zealand wildcards Dan King-Turner and Mark Nielsen have received mixed draws.

Nielsen faces Croatian Davis Cup hero Mario Ancic, who is ranked at 25 in the world while King-Turner, in his first main draw match, plays No 75 Florian Mayer of Germany.

"Obviously he's (Ancic) is a big guy with a big game," Nielsen said.

"I played him in doubles before and have watched him grow up. He's had success lately with Davis Cup. You don't know if he's going to play up or down."

Other interesting first-round clashes feature former champion and fourth seed Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia against Olympic champion Nicolas Massu.

Last year's runner-up Olivier Rochus, who is now inside the top 30 rankings, plays Spain's Albert Montanes.

Third seed and 2005 US Open semifinalist Robbie Ginepri plays another Spaniard, Alberto Martin, while seventh seed Jarkko Nieminen of Finland faces talented Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis.

There was some disappointment yesterday, with the revelation that Australian wildcard Mark Philippoussis had withdrawn following a back injury while playing doubles in Adelaide. The wildcard allocated to Philippoussis will now fall to a lucky loser from the qualifying.

Meanwhile, one New Zealander out of six has survived the first round of qualifying for the tournament.

Davis Cup player Adam Thompson is the lone player in the second round after a 6-0 6-0 win over a Spaniard Antonio Do Santiago-Macanas.

He faces Italian Federico Luzzi in the second round today. Luzzi is a top-150 ranked player.

The next best of the New Zealanders was William Ward, who won seven games in his defeat by Frenchman Gregory Carraz, a former top 60 player.

The other New Zealanders, Rade Radinovich, Rubin Statham, Willam Ward, James Pilbro and Martin Colenbrander all lost in straight sets.

- NZPA