HEILBRONN, April 25, 2017
The entry list for the fourth edition of the €64,000 NECKARCUP, held from 13 to 21 May 2017 at the venue of the Tennis Club Heilbronn Trappensee in Heilbronn has been released.
The field will be led by Argentine Nicolas Kicker, who is currently ranked on a personal career high world no. 95 in the ATP rankings. The 24-year-old, a member of the 2017 ATP graduating class, clinched his first two ATP Challenger titles last year, lifting the trophies in Perugia and Guayaquil.
Kicker will be joined by a second top 100-player in person of Evgeny Donskoy. The world no. 96 from Russia captured the title at the Zhuhai Challenger earlier this season. Norbert Gombos of Slovakia could be the tournament’s third seed.
With US-Americans Stefan Kozlov and Noah Rubin, Canadian teen sensation Denis Shapovalov, Norwegian youngster Casper Ruud, as well as Alexander Bublik from Kazakhstan, five contenders for the ATP NextGen Final can be also found in the entry list.
Wild Cards For German Players
Organizer Metehan Cebeci and the German Tennis Federation (DTB) awarded a wild card into the main draw to Daniel Altmaier. The 18-year-old clinched two titles on the ITF Pro Circuit and is regarded as one of Germany’s biggest tennis hopes for the future. Altmaier is currently ranked on a career high world no. 268.
“Daniel is one of the highest ranked 18-year-olds in the world,” DTB sports director Klaus Eberhard stated. He even trusts Altmaier to win the Neckar Cup. “Maybe it is a bit too early for him this year, but he will surely return to Heilbronn next year. Then he could be one of the contenders for the title.”
Similar story happened back in 2015 when 18-year-old Alexander Zverev captured his second ATP Challenger career title in Heilbronn. In the meantime, Zverev has become a Top 20-player.
Altmaier will be joined by fellow German Yannick Maden, who received the second wild card in co-operation with the Tennis Federation of Württemberg (WTB). The 27-year-old, who did a bachelor degree at the Clemson University in South Carolina in the United States and also played some college tennis over there, qualified for his first ATP World Tour main draw at the European Open in Antwerp last year. He made it to the second round of the Neckarcup last year and is currently ranked at world no. 255.
Full Entry List (as of April 25):
1 KICKER, Nicolas ARG 95
2 DONSKOY, Evgeny RUS 96
3 GOMBOS, Norbert SVK 105
4 PAVLASEK, Adam CZE 107
5 LAAKSONEN, Henri SUI 111
6 MELZER, Gerald AUT 116
7 MARTIN, Andrej SVK 119
8 RUUD, Casper NOR 126
9 KAMKE, Tobias GER 141
10 BUBLIK, Alexander KAZ 146
11 KOZLOV, Stefan USA 147
12 KOVALIK, Jozef SVK 148
13 IGNATIK, Uladzimir BLR 149
14 FUCSOVICS, Marton HUN 154
15 CECCHINATO, Marco ITA 157
16 PELLA, Guido ARG 158
17 BASIC, Mirza BIH 167
18 COPPEJANS, Kimmer BEL 171
19 DIEZ, Steven CAN 176
20 SHAPOVALOV, Denis CAN 178
21 RUBIN, Noah USA 179
22 KRUEGER, Mitchell USA 180
