PETALING JAYA: This year’s ATP 250 Malaysian Open will see the return of some familiar faces including 2009 champion Nikolay Davydenko.
The 32-year-old Russian, currently ranked world No. 47, will make his return to the Putra Stadium, Kuala Lumpur this Sept 21 to 29 along with world No. 3 and French Open finalist David Ferrer, defending champion Juan Monaco, 2011 finalist Marcos Baghdatis as well as Julien Benneteau (France) and Andrey Golubev (Kazakhstan), the finalists from 2012 and 2010 respectively.
“I enjoy every time I go to Kuala Lumpur and I look forward again to coming back this year. I like the city, the people and the fans as they give me very good support,” said Davydenko, who will be coming for the fifth time.
Besides winning in 2009, Davydenko’s best performance was making the quarter-finals in 2011 and 2012.
Meanwhile, fresh new faces like young Spaniards Pablo Carreno and Roberto Carballes will be joining the fray after receiving wild cards.
The 22-year-old Carreno in particular has impressed. Having been forced to sit out seven months in 2012 due to a herniated disc, he started the 2013 season ranked No. 654 before clawing his way back to a career-high world No. 91 courtesy of wins at the Tanger Challenger (Morocco) and Segovia Challenger.
“We have a wonderful mixture of established stars, top-ten players, past finalists and champions – and soon-to-be-stars of the ATP World Tour,” said tournament director Nick Freyer of IMG.
“With Hyeon Chung (Wimbledon boy’s singles runner-up) and now Pablo and Roberto, we have some real future ATP stars and I am sure these investments will prove sound for our tournament’s future,” he added.
“Pablo, in particular, keeps on winning and after his latest title at the Segovia Challenger (on Sunday), will have jumped an amazing 550 ranking spots this year, to break into the world’s top 100 this week. Tennis fans should note his name as he is definitely going places.”
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