BELGRADE, May 21, 2021

Belgrade will host a second ATP 250 clay-court tournament next week, providing an ultimate test for players on their road to Roland-Garros. The €511,000 Belgrade Open will be held at the Novak Tennis Centre, the same location as the Serbia Open, held a month earlier from 19-25 April, as well as the WTA Serbia Ladies Open 2021 taking place this week. The facility features 14 tennis courts, including 11 clay and three hard courts.

Wild cards for the main draw of the Belgrade Open have been awarded to 17-year-old Serbians Hamad Medjedovic and Marko Topo, as well as to local favourite Pedja Krstin. Marko Tepavac of Serbia and Spaniard Carlos Gomez-Herrera received a wild card into the qualifying.

The field will be led by World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who fell to Aslan Karatsev in the semi-finals of the Serbia Open and is hoping to win a title on home soil.

“We are slowly completing the women’s tournament, and in parallel working on all the details to ensure that the men’s Belgrade Open is ready to welcome the best tennis players. Novak arrived to Belgrade, all our best tennis players are coming, Filip Krajinovic, Dusan Lajovic, Miomir Kecmanovic, Laslo Djere, as well as Gael Monfils, Adrian Mannarino, Jeremy Chardy, Fernando Verdasco, Nikoloz Basilashvili, a large number of top 50 tennis players. We are very happy and we hope for nice weather,” tournament director Djordje Djokovic said.

It is still unknown whether there will be spectators allowed to watch the matches.

“I would honestly love it, but that decision is up to the Crisis Centre. Untilhen, the entire line-up is respecting the rules and regulations, we are complying with all measures prescribed by the Government of the Republic of Serbia, and we will continue with that. We want to protect all participants and to ensure that everything about this tournament is at the highest level.”

The draw ceremony will be held Friday night at 7:30 pm local time and can be watched online via the tournament’s official Facebook page.