Squillari, Puerta confirm for Gold Flake Open

The 2001 edition of the Gold Flake Open will have the "Awesome Argentines" -- Franco Squillari and Mariano Puerta -- making their Indian debut.

Tournament director Sheila Manian informed in Madras on Thursday that the two will join Magnus Norman, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Cedric Pioline and defending champion Jerome Golmard for the January 1-7, season opener at the Nungambakkam Stadium, in Madras.

Both the young South Americans have been infiltrating the world's tennis courts over the last 18 months or so, and have broken into the top 20 this year. Squillari, nicknamed "Squirrel" (even though his last name is pronounced "skoo-LAR-ee"), is currently ranked 13th in the ATP Tour champion's race with 311 points. Puerta (pronounced "PWAIR-ta"), has 246 points, and is running 20th in this year’s race.

Twenty-four year old Squillari started the year ranked 52 on the ATP's entry system ranking and in ten months he was knocking on the door of the world's top ten. He has enjoyed quite a year and has proven he can play on surfaces other than his favoured clay. After a third round showing at the Australian Open, his best at a Grand Slam till then, he reached the semifinals in Mexico City, where he upset Nicolas Lapentti along the way before falling to fellow-Argentine Mariano Puerta.

Interestingly, in 1998, they played the first all-Argentine final, in Palermo, Italy, since 1982.

After closing out 1999 ranked 99, 22-year-old Mariano Puerta has catapulted himself into the top 20 for the first time in his career. He did very well on the swing through Latin America by reaching finals in three consecutive weeks and in fact won the event in Bogota, Colombia, in the third week where he beat Gustavo Kuerten in the semis. He was also a finalist at Gstaad, Switzerland, and Umag, Croatia. He reached the semifinals at Casablanca, Morocco and Mallorca in Spain and at the Tennis Masters Series - Rome, he made the quarterfinals and scored stunning upsets over Yevgany Kafelnikov and Juan Carlos Ferrero, another Gold Flake Open entrant.

"I have been keeping an eye on this pair’s progress through the year after a friend suggested to me that they were poised to make a move on the rankings ladder this year," said Ms. Maniam.

"Obviously I am delighted to have followed that advice as they have both enjoyed a tremendous year. Having them join an already-impressive field of Norman, Ferrero, Pioline and Golmard will make for some exciting tennis in Chennai. It is all very exciting with these fresh, young players on the ATP Tour," she added.

Squillari, who this year has already come close to equalling his career prize money having earned in excess of $US660,000, beat Lapentti again in Monte Carlo before winning the title in Munich for the second straight year defeating home favourite Tommy Haas in the final.

The 24-year-old's biggest Grand Slam success came on the clay at Roland Garros where, unseeded, he stormed into the semifinals before being stopped by Magnus Norman, the likely top seed at the Gold Flake Open.

Squillari obviously likes it in Germany because he won a second big clay court title there, the Stuttgart outdoor, and then on hardcourt he reached the quarters of the ATP Championships in Cincinnati.

The 22-year-old left-hander Puerta, has had a wonderful year too. After losing out to Andre Agassi in the first round of Australian Open, Puerta came back strongly with three final finishes in three consecutive tournaments. While he was runner-up in the Championhip Series at Mexico, and World series at Santiago, Chile, he won the World series event at Bogota, Columbia in early march. In July this year, he again made it to the finals of World Series tournaments at Gstaad, Switzerland and Umag, Croatia in back to back weeks. With five final finishes and a win already under his belt this year, Puerta seems set to hit for the top ten next year.