Chengdu, August 29, 2017

PLAYER FIELD ANNOUNCED FOR CHENGDU OPEN
TERRIFIC MIX OF ESTABLISHED PLAYERS AND THE “NEXTGEN” STARS

 

 

The Chengdu Open was excited to recently announce three marquee players for the second edition of the tournament, defending champion Karen Khachanov, Dominic Thiem and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Now the event is pleased to release the official acceptance list for the main draw.

 

The US$1,138,910 tournament which is the first week of the ATP World Tour’s “Asian Swing”, will be played at the Sichuan International Tennis Centre from September 23 to October 1.

 

The main draw cut-off is a strong 78; the last player in is Canadian Vasek Pospisil who is the winner of one of the majors having claimed the Wimbledon men’s doubles title in 2014. Pospisil is representing one of 15 different countries with the line-up of nations quite evenly spread – the only nations with more than one player are Russia, France, Argentina and Spain.

 

“It is a very balanced main draw and that will make it exciting for the fans,” Tournament Director Nick Freyer of IMG said. “We are delighted to welcome the marquee players we announced last week – Karen Khachanov, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Dominic Thiem. It is also great to see the spread of young guns such as Jared Donaldson, Borna Coric and Kyle Edmund, matching it with so many established stars like Viktor Troicki, Lu Yen-Hsun and Fernando Verdasco.

 

Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas will be returning. Last year he went all the way to the final of the Chengdu Open and that gave him quite a bounce in 2017 – he reached the final at Sao Paulo and Monte Carlo where he beat Andy Murray and Mari Cilic, he was a semi-finalist in Rio and Quito and a quarterfinalist five other times.

 

Fernando Verdasco has enjoyed another solid season this year, reaching the final in Dubai, the semis in Bastad and Doha and three quarterfinals, while Viktor Troicki a semi-finalist last year in Chengdu, made the semis in Istanbul and Sydney and the quarters in Sofia this year. Another established and popular player Marcos Baghdatis, a former world No.8, has twice been a semi-finalist in 2017.

 

There is a lot of buzz in tennis circles about the “NextGen” players. Khachanov is certainly one of them but another three are Croatian Borna Coric, American Jared Donaldson and Russian Andrey Rublev who was the 2015 ITF Junior Masters Champion in Chengdu as well as being the 2014 ITF World Junior Champion.

 

Coric won Marrakech and was a quarterfinalist in Madrid where be beat Murray, Donaldson made the quarters in Cincinnati and the quarters at two Challengers and upset Milos Raonic in Miami, while 19 year old Rublev won his first career title in Umag after coming through the qualifying rounds, was a quarter-finalist in Halle, a finalist at the Rennes Challenger and was a semi-finalist at two other Challengers.

 

“It is a fascinating line up with an amazing spread of players. It will be exciting for the fans to see the established players and so many of the young ones who are destined to carry the tennis banner in the future – the question will be, will our 2017 Champion be ‘NextGen’ like last year, or ‘CurrentGen’,” Freyer said.

 

There will be free admission to qualifying round matches and court 1 and 2 matches. Tickets for the Chengdu Open main draw center court matches through to the finals will range in price from RMB 30 to RMB 400 and are available through www.damai.cn and www.piao.com.cn.    

 

The tournament is owned by IMG and is organized by the Chinese Tennis Association and Chengdu Municipal Government, is co-organized by Chengdu Sports Bureau, Shuangliu District Government and Chengdu Culture Tourism Group and is promoted by Sichuan Investment International Tennis Centre Development Co., Ltd., CCTV IMG (Beijing) Sports Management Co. Ltd. and IMG Sports Development (Shanghai) Limited.

 

The Chengdu Open is also very proud to have the distinguished support from ATP World Tour’s Premier Partner Emirates, the official player hotel St. Regis, Chengdu which fast became a favourite of the players, Srixon tennis balls, the Sichuan Tennis International Hotel which is conveniently located adjacent to the courts and providing efficient services to the tournament, the official apparel Erke, the official gym equipment Life Fitness, the official Chinese tea Sichuan Mengding Tea Co. Ltd., the official stringer Yonex and the official water Ice Age.  The Official media partners are Iqiyi, West China Metropolis, Chengdu Radio and TV Station, CTA APP, Shenzhen Hundred-Meter Life Shares Co., Ltd., and Tennis World.

 

The official tournament website www.ChengduOpenTennis.com has additional information about the tournament.

 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Contact Ms. Robecta Yeung, ph: +852-28940204 or +86-13760373443 or by email Robecta.Yeung@img.com.

 


 

About the 2017 Chengdu Open
Please visit: www.ChengduOpenTennis.com

 

About Chinese Tennis Association
Please visit: www.tennis.org.cn

 

About Chengdu City
Please visit: www.chengdu.gov.cn

 

About Chengdu Sports Bureau
Please visit: www.cdsport.gov.cn

 

About Shuangliu District
Please visit: www.shuangliu.gov.cn

 

About Chengdu Culture Tourism Group
Please visit: www.cdctg.com

 

About Sichuan Investment International Tennis Centre Development Co., Ltd.
Please visit: www.sciitc.com

 

About CCTV-IMG Sports Management Company
Please visit: www.cctv-img.com

 

About IMG
Please visit: www.img.com

 

About the ATP World Tour
Please visit: www.atpworldtour.com

 

 

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