Ferrer sees off young gun
David Ferrer may be in the twilight of his career but the Spanish veteran still has enough in the tank to put the young bucks in their place.
Ferrer was pushed to the limit in a long first set against 18-yearold wildcard Wu Yibling but his experience shone through in second to win 7-6 6-4.
Making his 13th appearance in Auckland, the four-time champion will have to show plenty of improvement if he wants to capture a record fifth title.
But it was a solid first-up performance from the 35-year-old against a player regarded as one of the stars of the future.
Yibling, who ended 2017 as the No 1-ranked junior in the world, was given a wildcard with an eye to the future, and it seems a good decision by tournament director Karl Budge.
The talented Chinese is only beginning his first full season on the ATP Tour and he made an nervous start, broken to love in the very first game.
But the longer the set went on, it was easy to see what the fuss is about.
Swift across the court and with some serious power behind his groundstrokes, he soon had Ferrer on the backfoot and broke back with a superb backhand winner.
He also showed tremendous fight, saving seven of eight break points and fighting back from 4-0 down in the tiebreak to force two set points.
As with most young players, though, inconsistency is an issue and his over-aggressiveness came back to bite him on several occasions.
With the set there for the taking, he lost his nerve, doublefaulting to hand Ferrer the upperhand after 1 hour 15 minutes.
Frustration to seemed to kick in from that point and Ferrer took control.
Yibling did not go quietly, breaking back when Ferrer was serving for the match.
However, the mistakes on serve continued and Ferrer pounced to set up a second round clash with Portugal’s Joao Sousa, who beat American Donald Young in three sets.
Sousa is looking to go one better this week after losing last year’s final to Jack Sock but he had an early hiccup before rallying for a 6-7 6-4 6-2 win.
In a tight first set, Young fought back to claim the tiebreaker, saving four set points before converting his second with an ace.
It did not take long for Sousa to respond, though.
The 28-year-old broke in the opening game of the second set and maintained his advantage to level the match.
He then sealed the crucial break early in the decider and never looked back, wrapping up the match in two hours.
Sousa will meet either four-time champion David Ferrer or Chinese wildcard Wu Yibing in the second round.
Meanwhile, eighth seed Andrey Rublev has pulled out of the tournament because of a right arm injury.
Given Rublev made it to the final of the tournament in Doha last week, where he lost to Gael Monfils 6-2 6-3, the seriousness of the injury is open to debate and he may have felt he’s had enough tennis and would rather to straight to Melbourne for the Australian Open.
Rublev would have played against Stefanos Tsitsipas in the first round in Auckland.
His place in the draw has been taken by Lukas Lacko, who comes in as the lucky loser from the qualifying tournament.