LJUBLJANA, August 1, 2019
Aljaz Bedene will be the top seed at this year’s Zavarovalnica Sava Slovenia Open held in Portoroz from August 9 to 18, 2019. The ATP Challenger 80 hard-court event is the biggest tennis tournament in Slovenia and offers a total prize money of €46,600.
Currently sitting at World No. 91, Bedene is the country’s highest-ranked player on the ATP Tour. The 30-year-old Ljubljana native was naturalised British and played with this nationality from 2015 to 2017, returning to represent Slovenia in 2018. During this season, Bedene defeated Italy’s Marco Cecchinato en route to Rio de Janeiro semi-finals and upset No. 1 seed Fabio Fognini to reach the quarterfinals in Cordoba.
Bedene has made only one previous appearance in Portoroz. In 2013, he lost in the stage of the final four against compatriot Grega Zemlja, who clinched the title at the inaugural edition of the tournament on the Slovenian coast. Bedene will arrive a few days ahead of the tournament in order to get used to the conditions.
“Clay is my favorite surface, but the longer you are on the tennis circuit, the faster you get used to adapt to the different conditions on the courts,” Bedene said when he met the media in Ljubljana last week. “The hard courts in Portoroz suits my game as conditions are a bit slower. I can’t wait for the tournament to start.”
Bedene will be joined on home soil by fellow Slovenian Blaz Rola as well as 2015 champion Luca Vanni of Italy, 2017 winner Sergiy Stakhovksy from the Ukraine and defending champion Constant Lestienne of France.
Entry list Portoroz
83 Bedene, Aljaz (SLO)
137 Giustino, Lorenzo (ITA)
144 Stakhovsky, Sergiy (UKR)
161 Rola, Blaz (SLO)
175 Horansky, Filip (SVK)
196 Lestienne, Constant (FRA)
200 Galovic, Viktor (CRO)
201 Vatutin, Alexey (RUS)
225 Kamke, Tobias (GER)
239 Kolar, Zdenek (CZE)
243 Viola, Matteo (ITA)
246 Vanni, Luca (ITA)
247 Miedler, Lucas (AUT)
250 Petrovic, Danilo (SRB)
267 Karlovskiy, Evgeny (RUS)
273 De Schepper, Kenny (FRA)
275 Mukund, Sasi Kumar (IND)
281 Rodionov, Jurij (AUT)
292 Safiullin, Roman (RUS)
305 King, Evan (USA)
330 Vavassori, Andrea (ITA)
333 Nys, Hugo (MON)
348 Setkic, Aldin (BIH)
355 Bega, Alessandro (ITA)
357 Marchenko, Illya (UKR)
360 Durasovic, Viktor (NOR)
385 Celikbilek, Altug (TUR)
389 Gabashvili, Teymuraz (RUS)
395 Leshem, Edan (ISR)
398 Zekic, Miljan (SRB)
399 Gomez-Herrera, Carlos (ESP)
408 Sijsling, Igor (NED)
414 Ocleppo, Julian (ITA)
416 Patael, Ben (ISR)
418 Cornut-Chauvinc, Antoine (FRA)
8 Jomby, Tom (FRA) ITF
53 Etcheverry, Tomas Martin (ARG) ITF
54 Zukas, Matias (ARG) ITF
56 Hamou, Maxime (FRA) ITF
57 Robert, Quentin (FRA) ITF
For more information, please visit the tournament’s website.
