Murray and Sweeting Get Last Two Wild Card Entries To UCLA
4th ranked British player Andy Murray got the wild card entry into the Farmers Classic being played in Los Angeles. Andy Murray is the most promising tennis player produced by Great Britain. Murray became the newsmaker when he lifted his rank from the 132nd position to 2nd position in a matter of four years. In 2005 Murray was ranked as the 132nd position and soared to the 2nd rank in the August of 2009 which is his career best. The wild card was presented to him by Mercedes-Benz, the sponsors of the Farmers Classic.
Joining him in the final wild card entry is the American Ryan Sweeting. The 116th ranked Sweeting holds a record of 1 win and 5 losses for this calendar year. In the first round of the Farmers Classic, he will be playing his draw against Belgian Vliegen Kristof. The Farmers Classic will be played in the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) from the 26th of July to the 1st of August 2010. It is one of the ATP World Tour 250 series events and is being hosted since 1927. It has hosted the top men and women of the tennis world. The women’s event was last played in 1975 though.
This event is one of the events of the Olympus U.S. Open Series. The UCLA tennis stadium consists of the Straus Stadium which has the capacity of 6500 and the Grandstand Court with 1500 capacity. Kevin Anderson will also be joining the event owing it to his successful entry into the semi final of the Atlanta Tennis Championships. Anderson lost to John Isner of U.S.A in the semi final.
World no. 2 ranked Novak Djokovic was also part of the tournament. Djokovic pulled out of the tournament citing personal reasons. The 29th ranked Czech player Radek Stepanek was also scheduled to be a part of this tournament. Stepanek who has a career best ranking of 8 will also unfortunately not be able to take part in the event, due to his knee injury. The tournament director Bob Kramer expressed his disappointment in an interview. "It's certainly disappointing to lose players like Novak and Radek, however we are very excited that we've added these six players to the draw. We were looking forward to Novak making his debut in LA, but we're very fortunate that Andy Murray, another top five player will be able to join us."
Earlier this month Mercedes-Benz became the presenting sponsor for the event for three years. This historic event also featured Andre Agassi and John McEnroe on 24th July, as part of the ‘Stars under the Stars’. ‘Stars under the Stars’ consist of an eventful evening full of entertainment along with tennis and other activities. The proceeds of the event go to the benefit of Andre Agassi Foundation for Education.
Andy Murray will be making his debut in Farmers Classic, Los Angeles. Murray previously did extremely well in California when he won in San Jose in 2006 and 2007. He also did great in India in 2009 when he reached the final. The British national is also the top seeded player of the tournament. Whereas the 20th ranked American, Sam Querrey will be the defending champion and second seed for the tournament. Querrey along with being the defending champion has a reputation to protect as he is the former Olympus U.S. Open champion. The 49th ranked Mardy Fish, who is at the top of his form after playing Isner in the Atlanta Tennis Championships final, will be the 8th seeded player for the tournament.
The doubles draw will feature the world no. 3 ranked and five times winner American duo Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan. They hold the record of 61 career titles and will be the center of attention for the Doubles draws. Much is expected from Andy Murray who is the only top 10 player in the tournament.
Tags: