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January 8, 2007
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MALISSE INTO DELRAY BEACH AFTER WIN OVER NADAL,
CHENNAI TITLES
Three Former Delray Beach ITC champions in Draw
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 Delray
Beach, FL—Xavier Malisse, fresh off of winning the
singles and doubles titles in Chennai yesterday, has entered
the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships for the
eighth time. Malisse’s championship run in his first
tournament of 2007 included a singles semifinal win over
world No. 2 Rafael Nadal and another win over the
Spaniard in the doubles final.
Malisse will be joined by several newcomers and a host of
veteran players in the 15th annual Delray Beach ITC, which
will be played at the Delray Beach Stadium & Tennis Center
Jan. 27-Feb. 4, 2007.
Making his first appearance in Delray Beach will be
Benjamin Becker, who rose to No. 58 in the world last
year after beating Andre Agassi in the third round of
the U.S. Open and sending the eight-time Grand Slam champion
into retirement. Fellow German Rainer Schuettler, No.
6 in the world in 2003, will also play here for the first
time.
While Boca Raton’s Vince Spadea returns to his
hometown tournament for a record 10th time, Malisse is the
most successful player in Delray Beach history. The Sarasota
resident was the tournament’s 2005 champion and runner-up to
Tommy Haas last year, but he also reached Delray
Beach finals in 2001 and 1999. His double win in Chennai—a
feat accomplished only once on the ATP Tour last year—gave
him his second career ATP singles title and a third doubles
title.
In addition to Malisse and Haas—who was an early commitment
for tournament director Mark Baron—Davide Sanguinetti
will give the event three former champions in its 2007 draw.
The Italian returns for the first time since winning the
2002 title over Andy Roddick.
Baron has three wild cards available to add
additional players to the field in the next three weeks.
More history will be in the making as the eight-day event is
the first ATP tournament in the United States and one of 11
in the world to test a new round robin format. The new
format will ensure that confirmed stars like world ranked
No. 4 James Blake and No. 11 Haas play at
least twice in the event.
For ticket information or
information on the Delray Beach ancillary events, visit
www.YellowTennisBall.com or call 561-330-6000.
2007 Delray Beach ITC Entries: James Blake (USA),
Benjamin Becker (GER), Amer Delic (USA), , Alejandro Falla
(COL), Teimuraz Gabashvili (RUS), Guillermo Garcia-Lopez
(ESP), Simon Greul (GER), Tommy Haas (GER), Robert Kendrick
(USA), Kevin Kim (USA), Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER), Igor
Kunitsyn (RUS), Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE), Xavier Malisse (BEL),
Florian Mayer (GER), Andrei Pavel (ROM), Kristian Pless
(DEN), Christophe Rochus (BEL), Davide Sanguinetti (ITA),
Rainer Schuettler (GER), Vincent Spadea (USA), Fernando
Vicente (ESP)
www.YellowTennisBall.com. |
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