(Sunrise, FL)– Current ATP #12 Fernando Gonzalez has accepted a wild card into the BMW Tennis Championship at Sunrise, Florida. The other three wild cards are Dominik Hrbaty, Jarkko Niemenen and Kei Nishikori.

Fernando “Gonzo” Gonzales arrives in Sunrise, Florida on Tuesday for his first round match at the BMW Tennis Championship. The predominant top-ten player, with nine singles career titles got to the 3rd round at this year’s Australian Open, and followed that with his third 2008 title in Vina del Mar. Thenumber one south American player is the first Chilean to finish in the top 10 in back-to-back seasons since Marcelo Rios from 1997-99. He made his breakthrough by reaching his first Grand Slam final at the 2007 Australian Open, dropping only one set in wins over Hewitt (3rd round), No. 5 Blake (4th round), No. 2 Nadal (quarter finals) and No. 12 Haas (semi finals) before falling to #1 Roger Federer in straight sets. Afterwards, Gonzalez climbed from No. 9 to a career-high No. 5.

Last year, he qualified for the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai and went 1-2 in round robin play, defeating No. 1 Federer for the first time, compiling a 4-6 mark vs. Top 10 opponents and compiling marks of 22-14 on hard, 11-8 on clay and 4-2 on grass.

In 2004, one of his biggest career moments came at the Athens Olympics where he captured the bronze medal in singles and gold medal in doubles with his partner Nicolas Massu. He also has a 25-11 career Davis Cup record in 18 ties (15-6 in singles) since 1998. Gonzalez has been coached by American Larry Stefanki since May 2006.

Dominik Hrbaty, the No. 1 player from the Slovak Republic, increased his consecutive Grand Slam tournaments played last year to 44, going into 2008, the best record among active players. He struggled with right elbow problems most of last year before undergoing arthroscopic surgery to remove a bone spur. In January, Hrbaty advanced to the 3rd round at the Australian Open, his best Grand Slam result of year. In late April he advanced to the quarter finals in Casablanca, and in August, he advanced to the 3rd round at the Montreal Masters Series event with wins over Philip Kohlschreiber and Tommy Robredo. Nicknamed the “Dominator”, he was named ATP Newcomer of the Year in 1996.

In January of this year, current ATP #26 ranked Jarkko Niemenen had compiled an 8-3 record, reaching the final in Adelaide, Australia then advancing to his third career Grand Slam quarter final at the 2008 Australian Open, losing to Rafael Nadal. Last year, the Finnish left-hander ended in the top thirty for the third straight season, highlighted by reaching his seventh career ATP final. He also got to the semis in Marseille and Halle, and reached a year-end best No. 46 in doubles.

Kei Nishikori’s career highlight happened just recently in Delray Beach, Florida when he defeated world #12 James Blake in the final, defeating No. 5 seed Florian Mayer and Americans Amer Delic, Bobby Reynolds and No. 3 seed Sam Querry along the way. This made Kei the first Japanese player to win an ATP title since Shuzo Matsuoka in Seoul on Apr. 26, 1992. At 18 years, 1 month, 19 days old, he was also the youngest player to win an ATP title since Lleyton Hewitt, who won in Adelaide at 16 years old in 1998.