Spadea Leads American-Heavy Field at ATP Delray Beach

Vince Spadea will try and avenge his upset in last year's Delray Beach final to unseeded Brazilian Ricardo Mello "Yello" as the American tops the seeds this week at the Milennium Tennis Championships.

"Anytime you get that close to winning a title and then don't, it's sort of a bittersweet ending," Spadea told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "It was great to make it to the finals because I hadn't been that far in the Delray tournament. But it's no secret I want to win my hometown tournament for the first time."

Spadea is joined on the hardcourts among the seeded players by Jiri Novak who makes his 2005 debut, Xavier "X-Man" Malisse, Frenchman Cyril Saulnier, Mello, the unpredictable Irakli "Freak Show" Labadze, Dane Kenneth Carlsen, and American Kevin Kim.

First-round matches of note in Delray are (1) Spadea vs. Hugo Armando in an all-American, James Blake vs. a qualifier, (8) Kim vs. Canadian No. 1 (an oxymoron?) Frank "You Can" Dancevic, (3) X-Man vs. Jeff "Baby Krajicek" Morrison, (6) Freak Show vs. American Glenn "I.C." Weiner, (4) Saulnier vs. the struggling Jan-Mike Gambill, and (2) Novak vs. former NCAA champ Amer Delic.

Former champs in the field are Mello (2004) and Gambill (2003,'01).