HEILBRONN, May 12, 2017

Daniel Brands and Marsel Ilhan have been awarded the final two main draw wild cards for the €64,000 NECKARCUP held from 13 to 21 May 2017 at the venue of the Tennis Club Heilbronn Trappensee in Heilbronn.

The 29-year-old German, who is currently ranked World No. 195, struggled with injuries in recent years and is trying to climb up the ranking again. Brands reached a career high World No. 53 in 2013. He played a solid indoor season at the beginning of the season, advanced to the quarterfinals of the ATP Challenger in Koblenz and made it to the second round at the ATP 250 event in Sofia but haven’t won a main draw match since February.

Ilhan played mainly on the ITF Pro Circuit this year. The 29-year-old from Turkey, who was born in Samarkand, captured one Futures title in Antalya last month. Germans Yannick Maden and Daniel Altmaier received the other two wild cards.

The field will be led by Argentine Nicolas Kicker, who is currently ranked on a personal career high World No. 92. The 24-year-old, a member of the 2017 ATP graduating class, clinched his first two ATP Challenger titles last year, lifting the trophies in Perugia and Guayaquil.

Kicker will be joined by a second top 100-player in person of Evgeny Donskoy. The World No. 94 from Russia captured the title at the Zhuhai Challenger earlier this season. Norbert Gombos of Slovakia could be the tournament’s third seed.

With US-American Stefan Kozlov, Canadian teen sensation Denis Shapovalov, Norwegian youngster Casper Ruud, as well as Alexander Bublik from Kazakhstan, four contenders for the #NextGen ATP Finals will also come to Heilbronn. Young gun Noah Rubin from the United States was forced to pull out due to wrist injury.