Top men’s player signed for Classic

ASB Classic tournament director Nicolas Lamperin was in a great position for January’s events, even before he made a trip to the US Open.

The Frenchman, who has replaced Karl Budge as the Classic’s main man, has told he’s turned down four women inside the top 10 who wanted to come to Auckland and has secured a men’s player currently ranked higher than world No 9, Cameron Norrie.

An issue the Classic faced for the men’s tournament just before Covid19 hit was the emergence of the ATP Cup, happening in Australia the week before the men’s Classic.

For some big name players, they’ll prefer just to play that, then have a week’s preparation before the Australian Open, especially if their nation goes deep in it.

But for players from smaller countries, who might not last long in the 24-nation event, the Classic does give them the opportunity to play more matches before the Australian Open.

‘‘When the players are looking at the ATP Cup, they’re obviously looking at the country where they’re coming from, how they think they might do and also if they want to play week two,’’ Lamperin said.

‘‘Countries like Serbia and Spain would be difficult, because we’d expect them to go all the way.

‘‘But for some smaller ones, there is definitely an opportunity to have more flexibility for week two.

‘‘In the men’s there will be someone else ranked above Cameron,’’ he revealed. ‘‘So Cameron won’t be the top seed, unless he does something amazing over the remainder of the season. But we do have someone else confirmed.’’

Given the situation with the ATP Cup, Lamperin’s comments suggest someone like Casper Ruud from Norway or even Stefanos Tsitsipas from Greece could be heading to Auckland.

Lamperin will have numerous meetings with agents and players in New York. Some will be to gauge interest in coming to New Zealand, others will be to lock in contracts.

‘‘At this stage I have signed seven players, four on the men’s side and three on the women’s,’’ he said.

‘‘Obviously, two have been announced already [Coco Gauff and Norrie] and I probably have one or two more spots open, so I’m trying to figure out the interest from a couple more names and see how the conversations go.’’