SEGOVIA, August 1, 2015

The main draw for the 30th edition of the Castilla y León Open Villa de El Espinar took place on Saturday and world number 73 Marcel Granollers will be the top seed at the € 42,500 ATP Challenger.

The 29-year-old from Barcelona, who lost in the semi-finals of the doubles competition at the ATP 250 Swiss Open in Gstaad on Saturday, was granted a wild card by tournament director Virginia Ruano Pascual. During the Swiss tournament, his coach Fernando Vicente confirmed that Granollers will return to the hard courts playing two ATP Challengers in Segovia as well as well as in Portoroz the coming weeks. Granollers will face world number 295 Caio Zampieri in the first round at El Espinar. Their one and only previous meeting took place in 2006 when Granollers defeated the Brazilian in straight sets at an ITF Future event in Portugal.

Marcel Granollers (here with Marc López) played singles and doubles in Gstaad this week

Second favourite will be Dustin Brown. The 30-year-old German will play his first ATP Challenger event since losing in the first round at the Neckar Cup in Heilbronn in May. In his opening match in El Espinar, Brown will face Frederico Ferreira Silva for the first time on the tour.

In the second round of the qualifying the top favourites prevailed. First seed Roberto Ortego-Olmedo defeated Brit Matthew Short, winning 6-4, 7-6 in one hour and 51 minutes.

Second seed Sebastian Boltz dismissed Spaniard Saul Verdugo Vicente, winning 6-3, 6-0 in only 46 minutes. “The first games were pretty tough due to the altitude but then my body adapted to the conditions and I felt better. I am pleased with my match and the tournament in general,” the Frenchman said.