No Aussies left in AAPT title
Scott Draper suffered a straight sets defeat at the hands of injury-prone Dutchman Richard Krajicek to leave Australia without a representative after the first round of the AAPT tennis championships at Memorial Drive in Adelaide.
Draper battled hard and looked the better player for much of the match, but Krajicek's powerful first serve proved too much for the Queenslander to handle at vital stages.
Krajicek won 7-6 (7-4) 6-4.
"He serves unbelievably and he's been doing that for his whole career. That's why he's a Wimbledon champion," Draper said.
"I lost my serve once, I played two bad points for the match and I'm the loser.
"The only thing I'm disappointed with is losing. I'm happy with the way I played."
Krajicek, playing just his seventh tournament in more than two years after long absences with knee and elbow injuries, echoed those sentiments, saying his serve kept him in the contest.
"That saved my match today, that's not the first time that's happened, but today it was pretty extreme," Krajicek said.
He said Draper, currently ranked 137th in the world, had the game to be ranked much higher.
"The way he played he was the better player. My serving frustrated him but I don't think he has to play many players like me," he said.
"If he continues like this and doesn't have too many unlucky draws he could be easily top 75 or top 50 in the next six months."
Draper's exit completed a disappointing tournament for Australia's singles entrants in the 32-man draw, with teenagers Todd Reid and Adam Kennedy, who like Draper were given wildcards into the event, both losing their first round matches on Monday night.
It was a bad blow for tournament organisers, who will struggle to attract interest for the later stages of an event lacking an Australian or many strong international drawcards.
World No.1 Lleyton Hewitt elected to bypass the tournament to play in the Hopman Cup in Perth, while Australia's No.2 singles player Wayne Arthurs was a late withdrawal through injury and Australian No.3 Mark Philippoussis is playing in Chennai, India.
Adding to the poor result for the tournament promoters, two of the highest-profile overseas players in the event, South African top seed Wayne Ferreira and Swedish third seed Thomas Enqvist, both lost in the first round.
Enqvist lost to lowly-ranked Belgian qualifier Kristof Vliegen 3-6 6-4 6-3 last night, while Ferreira suffered a straight sets defeat to unseeded Argentinian Franco Squillari.
Squillari, the world No.82, upset the 39th-ranked Ferreira 7-6 6-2 and will now meet Krajicek in the second round.
And in a second round match, fourth seeded Croatian Ivan Ljubicic was upset by Russia's Nikolay Davydenko 4-6 6-4 7-6 (11-9).
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