Montanes With Barcelona Open Wild Card And Announces Retirement

Albert Montañès in Barcelona

BARCELONA, April 21, 2017

The organizers of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell have already awarded all of the five wild cards into the main draw of the ATP 500 event, held from 22 to 30 April 2017 at the Real Club de Tenis in Barcelona.

They announced Friday that World No. 1 Andy Murray and ATP NextGen star Alexander Zverev, who will make his second participation in Spain’s second largest city, will join 2014 champion Tommy Robredo.

The 29-year-old Scot has not played in Barcelona since 2012 and will be one of four Top 10 players appearing at the clay court tournament. “It is the icing to an exceptional line-up,” tournament director Albert Costa told.

The last two wild cards will go to Swedish teenager Mikael Ymer and Catalan veteran Albert Montañès. The latter, who has competed 12 times at the Barcelona Open, will take advantage of this year’s edition of the tournament to announce his retirement.

Montañès has played 540 matches on the ATP World Tour and captured six titles. The most important was in Stuttgart in 2010, curiously the only one he achieved on clay, his favorite surface. The 36-year-old reached a career high ranking of World No. 22 in August 2010 and earned a total prize money of $5,849,233. He is currently ranked World No. 254.