KUALA LUMPUR, August 19 — World number seven David Ferrer of Spain will lead a star-studded cast in the 2015 Malaysian Open Tennis Championship from Sept 26 to Oct 4 at the Putra Indoor Stadium in Bukit Jalil.
Other prominent players who are set to be featured in the seventh edition of the US$1,041,540 (RM4.267 million) tournament are 2015 Wimbledon Open semi-finalist Richard Gasquet from France, 2013 champion Joao Sousa from Portugal, Spaniard Feliciano Lopez and also Australian Nick Kyrgios who has a Malaysian parentage.
Tournament Director Nick Freyer said the organiser, IMG was truly honoured by the tremendous support by players of the ATP World Tour rankings for this tournament.
"It is the toughest field we have hosted in the tournament’s seven years and it doesn’t stop with the top eight players,” he said in a statement issued by IMG, today.
"We have an almost world class-leading cut-off of number 57 in the rankings and that means that anyone of the 19 direct acceptances are capable of winning the tournament," he said.
"It is going to be a fantastic week at Putra Stadium...and impossible to predict who will be holding the trophy on the final day,” added Nick who is also the IMG Senior Vice-President.
The 28 players will partake in the singles main draw which is made up of 19 direct entries, two special exempts reserved for qualifying draw players, three wild card and four qualifiers.
The tournament is supported by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Tourism Malaysia and also the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
19 Direct Entries:
David Ferrer, Feliciano Lopez, Pablo Carreno Busta, Fernando Verdasco (All from Spain); Richard Gasquet, Jeremy Chardy, Benoit Paire (France); Grigor Dimitrov (BUL); Viktor Troicki (SRB); Pablo Cuevas (URU); Nick Kyrgios and Sam Groth (AUS); Steve Johnson (USA); Mikhail Kukushkin (KAZ); Vasek Pospisil (CAN); Radek Stepanek (CZE); Teymuraz Gabashvili (RUS); Joao Sousa (POR); Marcos Baghdatis (CYP). — Bernama
