Sunrise, Florida, February, 28 2007 - The 2007 BMW Tennis Championship awarded a main draw wild card to Gustavo “Guga” Kuerten, Tournament Director Gabe Norona announced today. 

“We are thrilled that Guga has elected to play our event and welcome him and all the Brazilian fans to Sunrise!” says Tournament Director Gabe Norona.

The BMW Tennis Championship (BMWTC) will be held March 11-18 at the SunriseTennis Club in Sunrise, Florida.   Tickets are available by calling 877 877-7677 or online, please click here.

"It is a great advantage for the players, to be able to play Indian Wells and the tournament in Sunrise too. For me, it is great to know that I will have the chance to play in an important week, if I am not in Indian Wells.   This wild card is another opportunity that I have been given and as I said before, just gives me extra motivation." said Kuerten.

The former number one player is a three time French Open Champion with 20 career singles titles and 8 doubles titles.   The 30 year old Brazilian has a strong following in South Florida and is always a crowd favorite.  Kuerten is on his way back up the rankings after major hip surgery in September 2004.   Kuerten is also entered in Indian Wells which begins 4 days prior to the Sunrise tournament.   If Kuerten is still competing in Indian Wells on Monday March 12 th at 6:00 pm EST, when the draw for the BMWTC is made, he will be automatically withdrawn from the event.

"I have been feeling better and better each day,” he said. “The more I play, the better I feel. I didn't play for a long time and I knew it wasn't going to be easy in the beginning, that I would lose a lot of matches. For me, what is important right now is to play matches and playing matches I can go further, there is no other way. Every tournament matters for me. I have improved so much since my first tournament in Chile and now I am starting to feel more at ease on court, to find myself on court again."

Players see the hard-court tournament as a warm-up event for the Sony-Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, which is the sport's most important tournament outside of the Grand Slams. Kuerten was also awarded a wild card into the Sony Ericsson Open.

“ We realize that he's playing well and that there is a chance he'll still be competing in Indian Wells, but all of us at the tournament are ecstatic at just the possibility of Guga coming!” said Tournament Director Gabe Norona.

ABOUT THE BMW TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP:   The BMW Tennis Championship will be held March 11-18 at the Sunrise Tennis Club in Sunrise, Florida and is the only ATP event held in Broward County.   Tickets are available by calling 877 877-7677 or online, please click here. For 2007, The BMW Tennis Championship will again draw a remarkable roster of world-class players.   The tournament can recruit top 50 players and offer wildcards to top ten players ensuring an impressive and competitive field. Last years winner, Russian Dmitry Tursunov, is currently ranked 20 and had the best year of his career winning 3 singles titles and reaching the round of 16 at Wimbledon.

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