Ferrer, Isner Lead 2011 Auckland Field

© Getty ImagesDavid Ferrer won the Auckland title in 2007.

The 2011 Heineken Open featuring the Panasonic Singles and Doubles looks set to be another blockbuster tournament with plenty of new talent, experience and crowd pleasers.

There are two former champions and the defending champion in the 19-player field. Four players who have been ranked in the world’s top five, including former No1 Juan Carlos Ferrero as well as a number of new players to the tournament.

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World No7 David Ferrer of Spain, the 2007 champion will be the top seed and has just completed playing at the ATP World Tour finals in London. Ferrer along with countrymen Albert Montanes won two ATP singles titles each in 2010. Another Spaniard, Juan Carlos Ferrero took away three titles this year.

The second seed is the defending champion, world No19 and the man who won the longest professional tennis match in history, John Isner.

The 2.06m (6’9”) American won the 2010 Heineken Open in dramatic fashion over Frenchman, Arnaud Clement for his first and only career title. He has been a beaten finalist in three other tournaments this year – Memphis, Belgrade and Atlanta as well as playing the historic 11 hour five minute match at Wimbledon.

The third seed, with a ranking of 25, Montanes had a remarkable year, starting by reaching the semifinals at the Heineken Open he won the tournament at Estoril, beating Roger Federer in the semis and also claimed the title at Stuttgart as well as making the semis at three other events and the quarters at two tournaments.

Fourth seed is Heineken Open regular visitor, Juan Monaco of Argentina. The world No26 reached one ATP final (Santiago) three semifinals – Buenos Aires, Acapulco and Shanghai and the quarters at the Indian Wells Masters Series. It will be his sixth visit to Auckland.

Also seeded will be No27th ranked David Nalbandian. The former No3 and Wimbledon runner up from 2002 has 11 career singles titles to his credit, including winning at Washington this year.

Sixth seed is Ferrero, the 2008 Heineken Open finalist who reached the top of the world rankings in September 2003 and won Roland Garros that same year. He won three titles in 2010 – Costa Do Sauipe, Acapulco and Umag and was a finalist at another event.

Thomaz Bellucci(Brazil) ranked at 31 and former champion Philipp Kohlschreiber(Germany) at 34 in the world are the seven and eighth seeded players respectively. Bellucci won the title at Santiago while Kohlschreiber had an extremely consistent year reaching two semis, one of them being at the Heineken Open.

Also entering is former top 10 player and 2007 Heineken Open finalist Tommy Robredo who has a current ranking of 50.

“The 2011 Heineken Open looks set to become another great event with plenty of quality, talent and depth. To have the eight seeds within the top 34 rankings and a cut off of 64 just shows that there will be quality tennis at the tournament.

Having David Ferrer, the world No7 come to Auckland again is fantastic. He is a great player to watch and being in the top 10 proves his quality. John Isner is obviously a crowd favourite while there are plenty of form players from 2010 such as Albert Montanes, Juan Monaco as well as a Grand Slam winner such as Juan Carlos Ferrero and a former Grand Slam finalist in David Nalbandian.

It is also good to have a number of new faces. These include former world No1 junior, Thiemo de Bakker from the Netherlands, Columbian Santiago Giraldo and tall South African, Kevin Anderson,” says Heineken Open tournament director, Richard Palmer.

The Heineken Open featuring the Panasonic Singles and Doubles will be held at the ASB Tennis Centre, January 10-15, 2011 with the first two days of qualifying January 8-9, 2011 at the Albany Tennis Park, Oteha Valley Road, Albany.

The new Heineken Open website is online with new features at www.heinekenopen.co.nz and Facebook – Heineken Open NZ 2011(official).