More stars to follow Fognini to Classic

World No 12 Fabio Fognini was the big name announcement when the full field for the men’s ASB Classic was revealed yesterday, but there could be surprises to come.

With the arrival of the ATP Cup in Australia the week before the Classic, the number of wildcards for Auckland has increased from three to five.

Tournament director Karl Budge will be keeping a close eye on proceedings in Australia and be ready to make a pitch for anyone looking for another week’s tennis before the Australian Open.

The field for this year’s Classic is already incredibly strong, with the likes of Daniil Medvedev, Denis Shapovalov, Karen Khachanov and John Isner previously confirmed.

But there could be more big names to come, including world No 9 and twotime Classic winner, Roberto Bautista Agut, of Spain.

Budge says Bautista Agut is keen to come, but they’ve held off from confirming his arrival.

‘‘We’ve gone down a different path of rather than getting these guys to enter and withdraw if they go deep in the ATP Cup, we’ve thought ‘we’ve got the wildcards, let’s hold and see what happens’,’’ Budge said. ‘‘We’ve spoken at length to Roberto and I think if he doesn’t make the semifinals of the ATP Cup, he’ll play in Auckland.

‘‘We’ve got to wait to see how that plays out, we’ve got those five wildcards to be able to capitalise, when we see the movement of those teams.’’

Bautista Agut is playing with Rafael Nadal at the ATP Cup, so the chances of him going deep look high.

However, there are players who may get knocked out of the ATP Cup early, because they come from nations that don’t have a strong second player.

Players like Dominic Thiem, of Austria, Japan’s Kei Nishikori and Grigor Dimitrov, of Bulgaria, fit into this category.

Budge wants to make sure there is money in the pot to pay the appearance fees for any of these stars, so he said he held off going for players ranked 20 to 40 for January’s Classic.