KEY POINTS:
Talk about getting value for money.
After a rain shutout on Tuesday, organisers of the Heineken Open needed a good day to make up lost ground, and they got it yesterday.
With the 3143-seater centre court sold out ground admission passes soared the attendance close to 4000.
On a sticky day, with the players hurling themselves about on a 24m x 8.2m block of hardcourt the spectators got a bumper day's action.
The strawberries and ice cream did a roaring trade, as did the beer sales.
The most engrossing contests came on the two outside courts as players were shuttled on and off like pawns on a giant green chessboard for second round, and quarter-finals matches, as reasonable rest periods were calculated.
None of the first three centre court matches needed more than two sets, but two seeds had been removed by mid-afternoon.
That took to five the number who didn't make it to the quarter-finals, after defending champion and No 4 seed Jarkko Nieminen, sixth seed Juan Carlos Ferrero, and No 8 Stanislas Wawrinka had been first round casualties.
Play began an hour earlier than usual, at 10am, and two-time winner Dominik Hrbaty was gone by lunchtime.
The fifth seed was run over by surprise German Philipp Kohlschreiber in straight sets 6-2 6-3.
If that raised eyebrows, the departure of second seed, tall Croat Mario Ancic was a five-star upset.
He was beaten 6-4 6-4 by American Mardy Fish.
The world No 9 cut a glum figure afterwards, and any pleasure at the support he got from a wall of young Croatian fans waiting for an autograph or photo would have been temporary.
"I'm still not feeling that confident on court, I wasn't serving well," Ancic said.
"I need some more matches."
In fact, it should not have been that big a boilover, as Fish has now won all three of his clashes with the tall Ancic.
He previously triumphed at Stockholm in 2003, en route to one of his two ATP singles titles, and in Madrid a year later.
He puts it down to playing a similar style, although the world No 45 admitted he'd rather be in Ancic's position right now.
Fish is on the way back after two bouts of surgery on his right wrist.
"I feel great, I'm injury free and that hasn't been the case for the last two years," the 25-year-old from Minnesota said.
Ancic, last year's beaten finalist, is popular in Auckland. This won't be his last visit.
"Auckland is a favourite destination on my calendar," he said before preparing to head for Melbourne and the Australian Open.
Perhaps the best match of the elongated day session was qualifier Juan Monaco's gruelling win over popular Belgian Olivier Rochus 7-5 5-7 6-3 out on court four.
Argentine Monaco progressed from qualifying and Rochus was his toughest opponent thus far.
Rochus was beaten finalist in 2005 and lost in the semifinals last year, but even buoyed by a large crowd, he could not hold off the resilient 22-year-old from Buenos Aires.
There was plenty of colour at the ASB Tennis Centre yesterday.
When Chilean Nicolas Massu squared off against Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela down the end of the court block, they had plenty of attention and turned on the longest match of the Open so far.
A noisy block of Chilean expatriates outnumbered their Argentine counterparts, chanting support for their man in a battle of the Andes.
The pair have different styles.
Massu has an explosive serve and forehand.
Chela is a gangly baseliner who operates by persistence rather than dazzling strokeplay.
Persistence won the day, 7-5 4-6 6-3 in three hours, putting a third Argentine into the last eight.
