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| Two-time champion Juan Martin del Potro |
From our friends at the Citi Open...
Two-Time Champion Juan Martin del Potro Returns to Citi Open
Juan Martin del Potro, a perennial top ten player on the Emirates ATP Rankings and two-time Washington champion, will return to D.C. this summer to compete in the Citi Open.
The 24-year-old Argentine, who will receive a wild card into the main draw, currently claims the top seed of the tournament held July 27-August 4 at the William H.G. Fitzgerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park. Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, has withdrawn from the tournament after suffering a knee injury sustained during a match at Wimbledon.
Del Potro joins the impressive field of world-class players committed to the tournament, including Tommy Haas, Kei Nishikori, Bob and Mike Bryan, Milos Raonic, Sam Querrey, John Isner, defending champion Alexandr Dolgopolov, James Blake, Mardy Fish, Gael Monfils, Lleyton Hewitt, Denis Kudla and many more.
The highest-ranked player from Argentina, del Potro played against World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in an epic five-set thriller at this year’s Wimbledon—the longest semifinal in the history of the Grand Slam tournament at 4 hours and 43 minutes, and one of the greatest matches in recent memory. Del Potro holds 14 singles titles, including the two he won in Washington in 2008 and 2009. He defeated then-World No. 1 Roger Federer in the 2009 US Open finals to clinch his first Grand Slam title. He reached a career-high ranking of No. 4 in 2010, and received a bronze medal in the 2012 Olympics in London.
Tsonga, the highest ranked French player, withdrew from Wimbledon during a second-round match due to a tear of his left knee cap tendon and will be out of tournament competition for an extended period of time. The injury requires a minimum of four weeks of medical treatment.
"We are thrilled to announce to our fans that Juan Martin, considered by many to be among the elite top five players in the game, will be returning to Washington," said Jeff Newman, Tournament Director. "Of course, we were hopeful Jo-Wilfried would have been able to recover in time to also play, but we wish him the best and a speedy recovery."
The Citi Open is one of only 11 elite ATP World Tour 500-level events worldwide and the only one held in the United States. The event is also part of the prestigious Emirates Airline US Open Series, the five-week summer tennis season that links nine North American hard-court tournaments to the final Grand Slam of the year, the US Open. In addition, the Citi Open features a WTA International Tournament which provides fans the opportunity to watch simultaneous competitions of both world-class men’s and women’s tennis throughout the nine-day event. The tournament features 48 men’s singles players and 16 doubles teams, 32 women’s singles players and 16 doubles teams.
The tournament’s owner and beneficiary, the Washington Tennis & Education Foundation (WTEF), provides underserved children in the D.C. area with a safe environment to learn critical life skills both on and off the courts through academic and athletic enrichment. Ticket pricing and package details plus a full listing of the player fields are now available at www.citiopentennis.com, or by phone at 202-721-9500. Daily and single session tickets are available through Ticketmaster.
For more information, visit the Citi Open on the web at www.citiopentennis.com. The Citi Open is on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CitiOpen and on Twitter at @CitiOpen. To receive news and updates about the tournament, join the growing Citi Open Text Club by texting DC to 25973. The 2013 Citi Open is a Lagardère Unlimited production.
