GSTAAD, June 10, 2016
Seven former finalists of the Swiss Open will return to the village of Gstaad this year for the 101st edition of the ATP 250 event held from 16 to 24 July 2016.
The entry list is led by world number 18 Gilles Simon, who returns to the Swiss Alps for the second time, joined by his fellow top 50-players Feliciano López (finalist in 2006), Albert Ramos and Guido Pella.
With Fernando Verdasco (finalist in 2011), Paul-Henri Mathieu (champion in 2007), Thomaz Bellucci (champion in 2009 and 2012), Mikhail Youzhny (champion in 2013), Robin Haase (finalist in 2013) as well as Juan Mónaco (finalist in 2014), familiar faces will come to Gstaad again.
“It’s really nice to see some famous names appearing on the entry list. It seems that the players love to return to Gstaad, being loyal with the tournament, as well as the spectators have been in all the years. They enjoy the great atmosphere here,” tournament director Jeff Collet is pleased.
Stan Wawrinka
Yet, with Stan Wawrinka, the probably most popular player will miss the tournament again. The Lausanne native has already skipped his home tournament in 2014 with fatigue and was forced to withdraw in 2015 due to should injury. Wawrinka is actually having a contract to play the event in 2016, but the organizers of the J. Safra Sarasin Swiss Open can understand the decision, as the world number five’s schedule is packed due to the Olympic Games.
The event in Rio de Janeiro is also responsible for the busy 2016 calendar of the ATP World Tour. As a consequence, the Swiss Open is taking place the same as the ATP 250 tournaments in Umag and Kitzbühel, as well as the ATP 500 Citi Open in Washington.
Only two top 10-players commited to tournaments this week with Tomas Berdych playing on the hard courts in the capital city of the United States and Dominic Thiem appearing at his home tournament in Austria. The latter, however, will not participate at the summer edition of the leading sporting event. Thiem will step into action at the inaugural Abierto Mexicanos Los Cabos.
