IRVING, March 9, 2018 (Press Release)
The 2018 Irving Tennis Classic (ITC), an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Challenger Level Tour event announced the initial player acceptance list for its seventh annual tournament, held in Irving at the Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas, March 12-18.
The current list of players is packed full of talent with an exciting mix of young up-coming NextGen and more experienced players including 24 Top 100 ATP ranked players with additional positions for 4 Wild Card and 4 Qualifier players. Returning to the ITC is the 2017 ITC Singles Champion, Aljaz Bedene from Slovenia, ranked 43 in the world and rapidly climbing the ATP rankings including just coming off a well fought loss in the 2018 Argentina Open Finals to Dominic Thiem. First time ITC participant Gilles Simon from France, with 1 ATP Tour Title in 2018, currently ranked 66 and as high as 6 in the world, will grace the courts with his incredibly consistent two-handed backhand. Also, with ATP Tour Titles in 2018, are Daniil Medvedev from Russia, ranked 50 and the Singles title holder of the 2018 Sydney International; and Horacio Zeballos from Argentina, ranked 68 and the Doubles title holder of the 2018 Buenos Aires Open.
Other notable players include some of our returning #NextGen representatives from the US, Jared Donaldson (57) and Frances Tiafoe (91) to square off with the more senior players likefellow American Steve Johnson (51), Singles title holder of the 2017 Clay Court Championship who consistently plays with great heart and pride. Joining the more experienced players will be Denis Istomin (79) from Uzbekistan with a career high 33 ranking and a 5-set thriller and huge upset victory over Novak Djokovic in the second round at the 2017 Australian Open. Appearing at the ITC for the first time from Japan is Yuichi Sugita (41) following a great 2017 with a quarter-finals showing in Cincinnati, a victory at Wimbledon, and the Singles title holder at the Antalya Open in Turkey, Sugita is on a mission to make 2018 even better. All of these players will be demonstrating their skills and spirit as they compete with other similarly talented players in this impressive Top 100 field of players at the Irving Tennis Classic.
“We are extremely pleased with the depth and diversity of the initial player acceptance list; these players provide a super strong and competitive field and promise to make for an exciting and entertaining 2018 ITC event,” said Zoltan Papp, Irving Tennis Classic Tournament Director. Zoltan continues with enthusiasm, “now that we have such great players coming here, we look forward to our great fans coming out to the ITC for some fantastic tennis competition and fun.”
Player Acceptance List (as of February 21, 2018)
Albot, Radu MDA 87
Johnson, Steve USA 51
Basic, Mirza BIH 74
Kicker, Nicolas ARG 86
Basilashvili, Nikoloz GEO 77
Kukushkin, Mikhail KAZ 89
Bedene, Aljaz SLO 43
Marterer, Maximilian GER 70
Copil, Marius ROU 73
Medvedev, Daniil RUS 50
Donaldson, Jared USA 57
Simon, Gilles FRA 66
Donskoy, Evgeny RUS 76
Sugita, Yuichi JPN 41
Ebden, Matthew AUS 88
Tiafoe, Frances USA 91
Fabbiano, Thomas ITA 81
Troicki, Viktor SRB 65
Fucsovics, Marton HUN 62
Vesely, Jiri CZE 61
Istomin, Denis UZB 79
Youzhny, Mikhail RUS 93
Jarry, Nicolas CHI 94
Zeballos, Horacio ARG 68
