After hosting yet another two outstanding tournaments both in womens and mens international tennis, the ASB Tennis Centre now looks forward to other sports. However, the ASB Classic Womens Event has brought Top Ten Glory into the city with current Olympic Champion Elena Dementieva stopping in Auckland for the first time and directly claim her first title on the tour this year. The current No 4 in the World showed a strong performance winning against fellow-country women Elena Vesnina. Tennis-Fans will also remember her second round match against local Marina Erakovic who showed a good performance but in the end had to give in to Dementieva. The Russians on-court and off-court behaviour was proof enough that she liked ASB Classic a lot and became a fan of New Zealand as such. The Ladies are now playing in Melbourne where the Australian Open are under way and hopefully Elena Dementieva gains what she stil has on her list: a title in a Grand Slam. Also Erakovic could do well at the Open. A victory in her first match against Czech Republican Petra Cetkovska is possible.

This years Heineken Open showed probably the best mens Tennis ever in Auckland with an extraordinary tuesday. All singles matches were three setters highlighting the defending champion Philipp Kohlschreiber playing former world no1 Juan Carlos Ferrero. In what many thought to be the best match of the tournament, Kohlschreiber pulled through into the second round but unfortunately had to withdraw from playing due to a shoulder injury. No 1 seed and currently on ninth position in world rankings, Juan Martin Del Potro from Argentina showed a stunning performance throughout the week in Auckland winning his final clearly against American no 6 seed Sam Querrey. Being only 20 years of age tennis future lies ahead of del Potro and maybe he can cause surprise in Melbourne Park. The Argentine loved the Auckland atmosphere very much and hopes to come back again next year.