(ATP)
Initially, David's plan was to start the season at Sydney. But when it became clear that he wouldn't receive a wild card (despite being the reigning champion), the organisers of the Heineken Open quickly took their chance and offered one to him. Therefore, David's comeback tournament on the ATP Tour is now Auckland.
It won't be David's first season that kicks off in New Zealand. He has played this particular event before, though it's been a while. His last trip to Auckland, back in 2003, was a fairly short one as he lost in the first round. In 2002 he reached the quarterfinal.
After 2003, David preferred to prepare for the Australian Open either at the Kooyong exhibition or, last year, at Sydney. Playing Auckland instead now, David will face much easier conditions (in terms of the heat) and also a field that's not as strong as the one at Sydney.
Among the top seeds, each of whom David could face in his first match, are Tommy Robredo, David Ferrer, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Nicolas Almagro but also Juan "Pico" Monaco.
The draw will be pulled Saturday (3pm local).
The matches will be played in two sessions, day (starting 11am local) and night (7.30pm local).
The interesting thing here being the time difference... +13 hrs GMT, +16 hrs Argentina, +18 hrs EST.
The good news is, however, that this tournament offers its own, free stream service. And the ad for it on the tournament website even promises match replays... We'll see. (Not available in India, China, Spain, Italy, France & Belgium; but there should be other streams as well, for example on the betting sites.)
So David is now about to embark on the long journey to Auckland. I thought he'd want to get there sooner, to have a little more time to get used to the conditions and the time difference. But it looks like he wanted a few more days back home - before it's now time to start travelling again. And though we all know how much he hates it, I'm still glad he has to put up with it again now...
5 comments:
Anna, look at what I have just find in the internet, about the Carnivals in Gualeguaychú of this year! (I'm saying this because you ask for it in the comments of the last post...)
As a summary i might say that, in the last sentence of the first paragraph, it says that David was there last weekend! :O
I'm doubting if it's true or not, just because anyone talked about this... and I couldn't find any photo.
The link is: http://www.ambito.com/suplementos/placer/noticia_suplemento.asp?ID=501890&Seccion=Secciones%20Especiales
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh3-N4dmTPE
pls check this lol
There's a New Zealand TV station that does a blog about what's happening on site(Drew Lilley style; currently the WTA side of the tournament is taking place). Their blog for Friday says that David is already in Auckland, training on the outside courts, apparently with Ferru (see entry at 5.47pm).
It also says that David won't be needing the wild card, as his ranking is good enough to get straight into the main draw. We'll see if that's true when the draw comes out.
And yeah, Tamar, it would be surprising if David managed to go to Gualeguaychú and nobody took any pics of him.
Noubar, I think I've seen enough of David in that outfit... ;)
I asked about that articule in the other thread! Lol
Well, seems David arrived earlier that what I thought.
According to this article, David doesn't need the wild card.
Looks like they're now thinking about giving it to Gulbis or Malisse.
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