Top crowd drawers Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are slated to compete at the Gerry Weber Open 2014 in Halle, Germany this year. This ATP 250 grasscourt tournament takes place from June 9 to 15. Federer is the defending champion at this event.
“We are happy about Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, two legends of this sport,” said Tournament Director Ralf Weber. “It will be a thrilling showdown of the top two players, but with some strong competition. This shows with the cutoff because with only players in the Top 53 in the world, we have the best collective [Emirates ATP Ranking] of all time for the main field.”
Notable participants aside from Nadal and Federer include two-time titlist Tommy Haas, Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikori, Richard Gasquet, Mikhail Youzhny, Gael Monfils and Jerzy Janowicz.
“The road to the tournament victory has gotten much more difficult in recent years because there are so many top players in the field,” said six-time champion Federer. “The spectators can look forward to an extremely strong tournament, I am certain of that.”
Nadal will be making his third trip at this event. He reached the quarterfinals in his previous visit back in 2012.
“I urgently want to have a successful start to the grass court season. Halle is a tremendously organised tournament with a great audience. Everybody wants to play their best tennis,” he said.
Starting 2015, the Gerry Weber Open will be classified as an ATP 500 tournament, together with the Queen’s Club tournament in London.
