HEILBRONN, May 6, 2022
Three days ahead of the start of the 8th edition of the NECKARCUP, tournament director Metehan Cebeci announced the wild cards for the ATP Challenger 100 clay-court tournament in Heilbronn, Germany.
“We’ve received numerous inquiries from well-known players, but they haven’t been able to give us a 100 per cent guarantee that they will actually come to Heilbronn. We turned down these inquiries because otherwise we might have ended up with a gap in the field,” Cebeci explained.
Defending champion Bernabe Zapata Miralles, however, was one person who promised to get on the plane straight away and come to Heilbronn. The 25-year-old Spaniard won the 2021 NECKARCUP when he defeated Daniel Elahi Galan in straight sets and is currently ranked 113th in the world.
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In accordance with the German Tennis Federation (DTB) the second wild card was awarded to Nicola Kuhn. The 22-year-old German, who represented Spain from 2016 to 2021, is ranked World No. 255. Kuhn will return to Heilbronn for the second consecutive time after he missed to qualify for the main draw last year.
Cebeci decided to wait until Saturday before awarding the third and last wild card for the main draw so that he might be able to give it to one of the well-known players. 2018 NECKARCUP champion, Rudolf Molleker, has secured his spot in the qualifying event. The other wild cards for the qualifying go to 18-year-old Max Rehberg from Munich (World No. 1066), 21-year-old Henri Squire from Duisburg (World No. 352) and 21-year-old Yanki Erel from Turkey (World No. 461).
The NECKARCUP will be held from May 8 to 14 and kicks off Sunday with the qualifying. Tickets can be purchased through the tournament’s official website.
