Initial Field Set For 85th Farmers Classic

Written by: Staff on 15th June 2011

Initial Field Set For 85th Farmers Classic

Argentina's Juan Martin Del Potro returns to Adrian Mannarino of France during an ATP Aegon tennis championship match on the fourth day at Queen's in London, Britain, 09 June 2011. EPA/ANDY RAIN |

Grand Slam Finalists, NCAA Champs, Join Field at
Farmers Classic Presented by Mercedes-Benz
Fish, del Potro and Querrey Headline Tournament Roster

June 15, 2011

LOS ANGELES – A pair of Grand Slam tournament finalists, two former NCAA Champions and a member of the reigning Davis Cup Championship team are among the players joining top ranked American Mardy Fish, 2009 US Open Champion Juan Martin del Potro and two-time defending champion Sam Querrey for the Farmers Classic, presented by Mercedes-Benz.

The 85th annual Olympus US Open Series and ATP World Tour 250 tournament will take place July 25-31 at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on the campus of UCLA.

Australian Open finalists Marcos Baghdatis (2006) and Fernando Gonzalez (2007),who is a three-time Olympic medalist, along with NCAA Champions Somdev Devvarman (2007-08) and Benjamin Becker(2004) and Janko Tipsarevic of the 2010 Davis Cup Champion team from Serbia are among the 19 players on the initial entry list for the 2011 Farmers Classic, presented by Mercedes-Benz.

Fish, who lives in Los Angeles, is ranked a career-high No. 9 on the ATP World Tour, and became the top-ranked American player on tour in May. del Potro, the 2008 Farmers Classic champion, already owns two titles this season. Querrey, who also has a residence in LA, is looking to join Hall of Famers Fred Perry (1932-34) and Don Budge (1935-37) as the only players to three-peat as Farmers Classic champion.

“We are looking forward to welcoming this very deep field to Los Angeles in July for the Farmers Classic,” said Tournament Director Bob Kramer. “The players in this field have all enjoyed success at many different levels of the game. Having five players who have spent time ranked in the Top 10 in the World coming to LA promises to make the tournament as competitive as ever. There should be very few easy matches for anyone during the week.”

The 19 players listed below will be joined by three wild cards, four qualifiers and two other players who earn either a special exemption or a direct acceptance to form the 28-player singles draw for the tournament:

Marcos Baghdatis (CYP)	Benjamin Becker (GER)	Thomaz Bellucci (BRA)
Michael Berrer (GER)	Alex Bogomolov, Jr. (USA)	Juan Martin del Potro (ARG)
Somdev Devvarman (IND)	Grigor Dimitrov (BUL)	Mardy Fish (USA)
Fernando Gonzalez (CHI)	Ernests Gulbis (LAT)	Igor Kunitsyn (RUS)
Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE)	Xavier Malisse (BEL)	Kei Nishikori (JPN)
Sam Querrey (USA)	Ryan Sweeting (USA)	Janko Tipsarevic (SRB)
Dmitry Tursunov (RUS)

Once again the Farmers Classic, presented by Mercedes-Benz, will benefit the Southern California Tennis Association. In 2010, the tournament and associated special events raised more than $500,000 for the SCTA and other charities.

Season tickets and mini-plan tickets for the 85th annual Farmers Classic presented by Mercedes-Benz are on sale now. Individual session tickets go on sale Monday, June 20, via Ticketmaster. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.FarmersClassic.com/Tickets or call (310) 824 -1010 ext. 251.