DELRAY BEACH, February 9, 2022 (Press Release)
A trio of players, including a pair of Americans and an Australian Open doubles champion, are joining the Delray Beach Open by VITACOST.com singles field while a half dozen players added to the qualifying field will include a former event champion.
Reigning Australian Open doubles champion Thanasi Kokkinakis along with Americans Steve Johnson and Denis Kudla will now compete in the singles main draw. Jack Sock, the 2017 singles champion, along with fellow Americans Ernesto Escobedo, Bjorn Fratangelo and Mitchell Krueger will be added to the qualifying field with Go Soeda and Emilio Gomez.
Qualifying for singles begins Saturday, Feb. 12 (session 2) and concludes Sunday, Feb. 13 (session 4). Singles and doubles main draw action for the ATP 250 event in the three-time National Civic League All-America city begins Monday, Feb. 14 (session 5). The ATP 250 final takes place on Sunday, Feb. 20 (session 17).
Kokkinakis, who won his first career title in January on home soil in Australia, will be making his second main draw appearance in Delray Beach. Johnson is a two-time Delray Beach Open semifinalist and an Olympic bronze medalist in doubles while Kudla enters his fourth main draw in Delray Beach.
The newly added trio join a main draw field that includes former champions Reilly Opelka (2020) and Kevin Anderson (2014), World No. 13 Cameron Norrie along with eight-time ATP Tour champion Grigor Dimitrov and 2022 Australian Open Round of 16 competitors Maxime Cressy and Adrian Mannarino. Rising American stars – Tommy Paul, Jenson Brooksby and 2021 Delray Beach Open finalist Sebastian Korda – are also included in the main draw.
The qualifying field additions are headlined by Americans Sock, a four-time winner on tour, Escobedo, who won an ATP Challenger Tour title earlier this year, Fratangelo, himself a four-time Challenger winner, and Krueger, who won a pair of Challengers in 2021.
Gomez’s father, Andres Gomez, is a former French Open champion and played in the first-ever Delray Beach Open. Soeda is an 18-time ATP Challenger Tour winner.
This year’s qualifying field also features 2016 Delray Beach Open champion Sam Querrey and 2020 finalist Yoshihito Nishioka. Two 17-year-old local junior players, 2022 Australian Open boys’ champion Bruno Kuzuhara (Coconut Creek) and 2021 Wimbledon boys’ finalist Victor Lilov (Delray Beach), are also in the qualifying field.
In other Delray Beach Open player news, 15-time ATP Tour winner Wayne Ferreira has been added to the ATP Champions Tour lineup. The owner of 11 career doubles titles, Ferreira is partnering with former French Open doubles champion Luke Jensen to go up against the 10-time ATP Tour No. 1 team Bob and Mike Bryan on Friday at 8 p.m.
Anderson will play his first singles match in Delray Beach on Tuesday, Feb. 15 at 8 p.m. (session 8) while Norrie will play his first match Wednesday evening, Feb. 16 at 8 p.m. (session 10). Dimitrov is set to compete in his first singles match Thursday evening, Feb. 17 at 8 p.m. (session 12).
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