MUNICH, April 25, 2018

A strong cotingent of players from the Slovakian Republic is awaited for this year’s qualifying draw of the BMW Open by FWU in Munich. Four of the country’s five best players will come to the venue of the MTTC Iphitos trying to book a place in the main draw of the ATP 250 clay-court event.

World No. 119 Andrej Martin is the highest ranked player of the quartet. The winner of seven ATP Challenger crowns advanced to the semi-finals of the Ecuador Open in Quito earlier this year and finished runner-up in his first final on the ATP World Tour in Umag 2016.

Martin will be joined by Martin Klizan, who lifted his second ATP World Tour title in Munich four years ago. The Bratislava native showed an impressive run, battling through the qualifying, beating Robin Haase in the semis and Fabio Fognini in the final to eventually clinch the title. Norbert Gombos and Jozef Kovalik round out the four representatives from Slovakia. The latter made it in into the quarterfinals in 2016.

The qualifying runs from 28 to 29 April 2018.

Qualifying Entry List

1 BERANKIS, Ricardas LTU 84 
2 MILLMAN, John AUS 89 
3 LAJOVIC, Dusan SRB 90 
4 KUKUSHKIN, Mikhail KAZ 92 
5 CECCHINATO, Marco ITA 100 
6 MELZER, Gerald AUT 113 
7 MARTIN, Andrej SVK 119 
8 HANFMANN, Yannick GER 121 
9 MADEN, Yannick GER 131 
10 KLIZAN, Martin SVK 132 
11 ZOPP, Jurgen EST 138 
12 MELZER, Jurgen AUT 145PR 
13 GOMBOS, Norbert SVK 146 
14 KOVALIK, Jozef SVK 150 

In the meantime organizers announced that defending champion Alexander Zverev will play his first match on Wednesday, 2 May. The World No. 3 will also receive this year’s Iphitos Award.