March 13, 2006

(Sunrise, FL) – The main draw for the BMW Tennis Championship at Sunrise Tennis Club is out – and the much-anticipated wild cards were a warded 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.

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
• Phillip Simmonds (USA) d. Ashley Fisher (AUS) 61, 64
• Nicolas Todero (ARG) d. Richard Brown (TRI) 62, 63
• Tripp Phillips (USA) d. Emin Agaev (AZE) 64, 64
• Alejandro Falla (COL) d. Michel Koning (NED) 63, 61
• Alex Bogomolov Jr. (USA) d. Aljoscha Thron (GER) 62, 62
• Todd Widom (USA) d. Alex Clayton (USA) 67, 76(5)
• Eric Taino (PHI) d. Scott Oudsema (USA) 76(6), 63
• Robert Kendrick (USA) d. Steven Korteling (NED) 76(6), 67, 63
• Andy Lake (USA) d. Petr Pala (CZE) 26, 63, 76(7)
• Horla Tecau (ROM) d. Scoville Jenkins (USA) 76(8), 63
• Alex Kuznetzov (USA) d. Marius Calugaru (ROM) 62, 63
• Simone Bolelli (ITA) d. Santiago Giraldo (COL) 63, 64
• Amer Delic (USA) d. Nicolas Todero (ARG) 64, 57, 63
• Chris Guccione d. Phillip Simmonds 61, 64
• Alejandro Falla d. Tripp Phillips 63, 62
• Alex Bogomolov Jr. d. Andy Lake 75, 62
• Todd Widom d. Evgeny Korolev 46, 76, 64
• Robert Kendrick d. Eric Taino 63, 63

Gabe Norona, Tournament Director
(954) 328-2283
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