In Phoenix

Ofner meets a qualifier in the opener

Austria's best tennis player, Sebastian Ofner, is seeded number two at the 225,000 dollar ATP Challenger175 in Phoenix.

The 27-year-old Styrian, who has squeezed the tournament in before the Masters 1000 tournament in Miami, will face a qualifier in the opener, just as he would if he won the first round. As only the first of two qualifying rounds will be played on Monday, the 38th-ranked player in the world will not start the hard-court tournament until Wednesday at the earliest.

Yuri Rodionov is the second Austrian to take part in the US state of Arizona. The 96th-ranked player in the world will play Colombian Daniel Galan for the first time. The third ÖTV top 100 man, Dominic Thiem, is playing at the Challenger in Szekesfehervar this week. He is the top seed there and, like Ofner, will not face a qualifier until Tuesday.