SAVANNAH, April 13, 2017

The USTA announced Thursday that Darian King of Bridgetown, Barbados will headline the competitors for the 2017 St. Joseph’s/Candler Savannah Challenger, a $75,000 USTA Pro Circuit Challenger event hosted at The Landings Club May 1-7.

The tournament is the fifth USTA Pro Circuit men’s Challenger event of the 2017 season. It is the last of three consecutive Challenger tournaments held on clay courts to help develop players on the surface leading up to the 2017 French Open. There are eight USTA Pro Circuit men’s events (Futures and Challengers combined) currently scheduled to take place in the USTA Southern Section in 2017.

Currently No. 112, King is the highest-ranked of the 22 men who received direct acceptance into the 32-player main draw. Thirty-two players will compete in the qualifying tournament April 29-May 1 for four other berths. The local tournament organizers and the USTA will also award wild card entries to complete the field.

King reached a career-high rank of No. 112 in the world on Monday. In March, the 24-year-old reached the second round at both Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami after battling his way through qualifying. In 2016, King became the first tennis player from Barbados to compete in the Olympics. King holds three ATP Challenger Tour singles titles overall.

Also expected to compete is 2015 SJ/C Savannah Challenger finalist James McGee and rising Canadian star Denis Shapovalov. On the American side, Stefan Kozlov is one of eight US-Americans in the main draw field. Also competing is former University of Tennessee standout Tennys Sandgren, 2015 doubles finalist Dennis Novikov, and former Wimbledon boys’ singles champion Noah Rubin.

Admission to the SJ/C Savannah Challenger is $15 daily May 1-5 and $20 daily for the semifinals (May 6) and finals (May 7). A weekly pass is also available for $100. All tickets can be purchased at the entrance to the Franklin Creek Tennis Center on the day of the tournament.

Full Entry List:

1 KING, Darian BAR 112
2 LAAKSONEN, Henri SUI 113
3 POLANSKY, Peter CAN 127
4 KOZLOV, Stefan USA 135
5 MAYER, Leonardo ARG 144
6 SANDGREN, Tennys USA 157
7 SHAPOVALOV, Denis CAN 172
8 RUBIN, Noah USA 181
9 KRUEGER, Mitchell USA 182
10 NOVIKOV, Dennis USA 185
11 MMOH, Michael USA 186
12 GARIN, Christian CHI 189
13 MCGEE, James IRL 207
14 GONZALEZ, Alejandro COL 216@
15 QUIROZ, Roberto ECU 232
16 MCDONALD, Mackenzie USA 236
17 GHEM, Andre BRA 244
18 O’CONNELL, Christopher AUS 250
19 BANGOURA, Sekou USA 260
20 ROLA, Blaz SLO 263
21 RAMANATHAN, Ramkumar IND 269
22 GOMEZ, Emilio ECU 275