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(Sunrise, FL) –
The main draw for the BMW Tennis Championship at Sunrise Tennis
Club is out – Rainer Schuettler lost in a grueling 2-hour, 42-minute second round
battle to Lleyton Hewitt at this week’s Pacific Life Open
– and the former world #5 now heads to Sunrise to warm up
for the Nasdaq-100 Open. Last year, The German finished in the top
100 for the seventh consecutive season. His best pro year was 2003,
when he won two ATP titles and reached four finals. That year, Schuettler
was one of the most consistent players in the top 10, losing only
three opening round matches while compiling a 21-9 match record
at ATP Masters Series events and a 14-4 mark at Grand Slams. He
became the first German since Boris Becker to advance to the fourth
round (or better) at all four Slams. Popular U.S. Star Kevin Kim,
currently ranked 100, was the final WC selection. Kim started off
2006 strongly, winning singles at Dallas. Last year he enjoyed his
best season on the ATP circuit, winning a career-high 19 matches
and recording wins at Grand Slam and ATP Masters Series levels for
first time. The tournament’s top seeds are: #1 Florent Serra (ITA), #2 Dmitry Tursunov (RSA), #3 Andreas Seppi (ITA), #4 Ivo Karlovic (CRO), #5 Alberto Martin (ESP), #6 Florian Mayer (GER), #7 Robin Vik (CZE), and #8 Tomas Zib (CZE). For the full 2006 entry list – please click here. The final ranking cutoff for the event is 149 – exceptionally strong for a Challenger event, and similar to many higher-level ATP tour events. Earlier in the week, some BMW-signed players dropped out due to injury or illness – notably Mark Philippoussis (flu) and Andy Murray (injury). Results of today’s qualifying matches: Chris Guccione (AUS) d. Timothy Neilly (USA) 63, 64 |
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and
the much-anticipated wild cards were awarded to Rainer Schuettler
(GER), Florent Serra (FRA), Ivo Karlovic (CRO), and Kevin Kim (USA).
Serra is now the tournament’s
highest-ranked player, at #34. Serra was a singles winner at Adelaide
this year, beating Michael Llodra, Tommy Robredo, Dominik Hrbaty
and Xavier Malisse on his way to the title. Last year, he won singles
at Bucharest. The towering “Dr. Ivo” Karlovic was a
singles Quarterfinalist and doubles semifinalist at Zagreb this
year. At Queen's Club last year, he defeated #2 Hewitt in the quarters
and Tomas Johansson in the semis, before losing to Andy Roddick
in the final. At Wimbledon, he fired an All England Club record
51 aces in his first round loss to Daniele Bracciali. 
