The Swiss Stan Wawrinka and the Portuguese Nuno Borges will compete against each other in the 2023 edition of the Estoril Open, which will take place from April 1 to 9 at Clube de Ténis do Estoril, the organization announced on Tuesday.
It will be the return of the Swiss, former number three in the world and currently ranked 100th, to the national territory, where in 2013 he won the title of the Portuguese tournament, the fourth of his career, after beating Spain’s David Ferrer in the final, 6-1 and 6-4, on the hard courts of Jamor.
“We have an extremely interesting picture. The new generation is very well represented by Sebastian Korda, Casper Ruud and Sebastian Báez and then we get big names in world tennis like Wawrinka, Dominic Thiem, Fognini, who are going to give people the opportunity to get the best tennis in the world at the Estoril Open,” began João Zilhão, tournament director.
Following his success in Portugal, 37-year-old Stan Wawrinka embarked on three highly successful seasons, winning 11 of his 16 trophies, including three Grand Slams, with wins at the 2014 Australian Open (beating Rafael Nadal in the final), Roland Garros in 2015 (defeated Novak Djokovic in the final) and US Open in 2016 (defeated Djkovic in the final).
“It was not in our minds to let Wawrinka escape to another tournament, it was important to keep him [com ‘wild card’], but most likely it will go straight to the keyframe. Many people like Wawrinka, he has a legion of fans and he is a player with one of the most beautiful left hands ever. In addition, he is a player with three Grand Slam titles, so a strong player,” said João Zilhão.
The Swiss makes his debut with a ‘wild card’ on the clay courts of Clube de Ténis do Estoril, where the Portuguese event has been held since 2015, and joins the Norwegian Casper Ruud, number four in the world and runner-up. champion of Roland Garros and US Open, the North American Sebastian Korda (26th ATP) and the Portuguese João Sousa, champion of the Estoril Open in 2018, who had already received an invitation.
Nuno Borges, who recently won the Monterrey challenger, has direct access to the main board thanks to his 80th place in the world rankings and will play for the third time in the biggest Portuguese tournament on the ATP circuit, having played for the last two year reached the round of 16.
“The brilliance of winning the challenger was fundamental, it allowed him to grow a lot in the ATP rankings and as such he was the only Portuguese with direct entry. He has the best ranking ever and is the current Estoril Open pairs -champion [juntamente com Francisco Cabral]so he is someone who is very important to the tournament,” the tournament director added.
Austrian Dominic Thiem, 2020 US Open champion, is also competing in the Estoril Open and, bearing in mind that he is only one place away and there are two places for ‘special exemption’ – places reserved for tennis players who arriving , at least , to the semifinals of an ATP Tour tournament the week before -, which are usually not used, should also have a guaranteed return, after entering the tournament in 2022.
Spaniards Pablo Carreño Busta (17th) and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (28th), Argentinian Sebastian Báez (35th), current champion, and Italian Fabio Fognini (88th) will also be present in the only Portuguese ATP Tour event.
Source: DN
