Hewitt, Blake Added to Atlanta Tennis Championships Field

Written by: Staff on 8th June 2011

Hewitt, Blake Added to Atlanta Tennis Championships Field

Australian tennis player Lleyton Hewitt returns the ball to Argentina's Leonardo Mayer during their first round match at the ATP Tennis tournament in Halle (Westphalia), Germany, 08 June 2011. Hewitt won 6-2 and 6-3. EPA/BERND THISSEN |

ATLANTA, June 8, 2011 – Former World No. 1 and two-time Grand Slam champion Lleyton Hewitt has committed to play the Atlanta Tennis Championships (ATC), an ATP World Tour event that will open the Olympus US Open Series at the Racquet Club of the South, July 18-24, Tournament Director Bob Bryant announced today.

Hewitt’s remarkable career is highlighted by two Grand Slam singles titles (US Open, Wimbledon), 28 ATP World Tour singles titles and 80 weeks at the top of the men’s game.

Also coming to the ATC is former World No. 4 James Blake, one of America’s most dependable Davis Cup players in last decade. An All-American at Harvard, Blake has won 10 ATP World Tour titles.

Joining them as headliners in the field are a group of North American stars including World No. 9 and defending ATC champion Mardy Fish, University of Georgia alum and finalist last year John Isner, World No. 26 and four-time winner on Tour in 2010 Sam Querrey and Canadian Milos Raonic, the youngest player in the top 30 of the world rankings at No. 28.

“We are thrilled to add former World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt and American standout James Blake to our strong field that will also feature Mardy Fish, John Isner, Sam Querrey and Milos Raonic,” said Tournament Director Bob Bryant. “In just under six weeks, we will serve up another fantastic tournament for fans with some of the best players in the world.”

While Americans will have the greatest presence, the field in Atlanta is diverse with 12 different countries being represented in the main draw and another dozen projected in the 32-man qualifying tournament. One of the top ranked players in the draw will be a big serving South African, Kevin Anderson, who won the first tournament of his career in Johannesburg earlier this season. He is joined by Xavier Malisse, of Belgium, who holds three ATP World Tour singles titles; six-time winner on Tour Russian Dmitry Tursunov and Kei Nishikori of Japan, who won his first ATP World Tour title in 2008 at the age of 18 in Delray Beach.

Rounding out the field of the 2011 Atlanta Tennis Championships are Latvian Ernests Gulbis, who captured an ATP World Tour title in Delray Beach last year; 20-year-old rising Bulgarian star Grigor Dimitrov; Yen-Hsun Lu, of Chinese Taipei, who reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 2010 after defeating Andy Roddick; Russian Igor Kunitsyn; Germans Michael Berrer and Matthias Bachinger and the two-time NCAA Singles champion from India, Somdev Devvarman..

In addition, other American stars in the event include Ryan Sweeting, who captured his first ATP World Tour title in Houston earlier this year; Alexander Bogomolov, Jr., who has one win this year on the Challenger circuit and 10-year tour veteran Michael Russell, who will be looking to back-up his quarterfinals appearance last year in Atlanta.

Daily tickets and weeklong ticket packages, which include tickets to all 11 sessions of the Atlanta Tennis Championships, are now on sale. For ATC ticket information, call 678-495-3279, e-mail tickets@atlantatennischampionships.com or visit www.atlantatennischampionships.com.