Palmer keeps Heineken Open wildcard in reserve

Heineken Open tournament director Richard Palmer will happily hand out one wildcard to former world No 3 David Nalbandian, another to top Kiwi Dan King-Turner and he'll tuck the third away in his back pocket for a few weeks yet.

New Zealand's international men's tennis tournament may be missing a headline act but Palmer was able to reveal a field that for all round strength is arguably better than anything in the history of the event.

The eight seeds will be in the world's top 31, 11 players are in the top 40 and the field will feature players who have accumulated 52 titles between them.

That's what makes Argentinas Nalbandian such a dangerous floater.

When Palmer first tied down Nalbandian he was ranked 14th. The following week he was 17 and when Auckland announced him as one of their drawcard he had slipped to 20.

Hip surgery then sidelined the right-hander for the latter part of the year and he has dropped to 65, just outside the direct entry cut-off of 59.

"We knew that and we're happy to give him a wildcard. He could appear anywhere in that draw and we think to have a world No 3 who is still such a class player floating around will add some real interest," Palmer said of Nalbandian who has almost $US10m in prizemoney, 10 titles to his name as well as a runner-up finish at the 2002 Wimbledon.

Palmer acknowledged he would like to give the last wildcard to Reuben Stratham, at 323 the next best Kiwi but 57 places behind King-Turner.

But Palmer will leave that decision until the eve of the January 11-16 event.

"We will hold that till late in case we get a big name player from one of the other tournaments in the first week loses early and perhaps wants some more match play before the Australian Open."

Palmer will keep a sharp eye on preceding tournament in Doha, Chennai and Brisbane, looking for likely casualties.

But he's chuffed to get one up on his rival event, the Sydney tournament whose eight seeds stretch out to a ranking of 39.

"That's significant for us," he said of the Auckland field that has four Spaniards heading the seedings with Tommy Robredo ranked at 16, David Ferrer at 18, former world No 1 and 2003 Roland Garros champion Juan Carlos Ferrero at 23 and Nicolas Almagro at 26.

"We've never ever had this sort of depth before so it's very difficult to pick a winner. It's exceptionally strong even and exceptionally even. I like the feel of it."

The other four seeds are 2008 champion Philipp Kohlschreiber at 27, Austria's Jurgen Melzer who is a newcomer to Auckland at 28, regular visitor Juan Moanco at 30, and Spain's Albert Montanes ranked 31st in the world.

Auckland has lived off its popularity and goodwill to entice back many of this year's field. Several of those return has far better players.

American John Isner is a good example. He became a crowd favourite last January as he battled through qualifying and played multiple three set contests before being halted in the quarter-finals.

After starting the year at 143 he is at a career-high 34.

Palmer was delighted to confirm Bob and Mike Bryan, the American twins who are the world's best doubles duo after winning the recent year-end championships in London, will play Auckland.

Collectively they have a staggering 114 doubles titles including seven Grand Slam wins. They also have their own band and there's hope that if they can get through to the final they will be part of the wind-up party that will be headlined by New Zealand singer Anika Moa.

- © Fairfax NZ News