The doubles field at this year’s US$984,300 Malaysian Open Kuala Lumpur is the best and toughest in the event’s five-year history. The event to be staged Putra Stadium, September 21 to 29, 2013.
The draw will be spearheaded by three-time Grand Slam and two time season-ending champion Nenad Zimonjic and his partner Julien Benneteau. The two have had a tremendous season already, as they chase one of the eight places for this year’s ATP World Tour Finals in London.
They won the ATP Masters 1000 Monte Carlo where they defeated Bob and Mike Bryan in the final, they also won Washington where they stopped two of the teams also entered at this year’s Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur – Santiago Gonzalez and Scott Lipsky and Treat Huey and Dominic Inglot.
As a team they were also semi-finalists at The Queen’s Club and quarter-finalists at Wimbledon.
Gonzalez and Lipsky come into the Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur having won titles at Halle and Oeiras, they were semi-finalists at Bucharest as well as at three ATP Masters 1000 events – Indian Wells, Rome and Cincinnati. Their consistency continued with quarter-final showings at San Jose, Memphis, Washington and Winston-Salem.
“This year is our fifth anniversary and we are thrilled to be celebrating that milestone with Visit Malaysia Year celebrations, and as part of all that we are delighted to be able to host a doubles draw that is very exciting and diverse,” said Tournament Director Nick Freyer of organisers IMG.
“This is going to be a great week of tennis both in singles, with the likes of French Open finalist David Ferrer and US Open semi-finalist Stan Wawrinka, and the doubles with the doubles specialists we have playing.”
Treat Huey from the Philippines, is one of the most prominent doubles players on the Tour and his partnership with British player Dominic Inglot has proven to be highly successful. The pairing were finalists at the ATP Masters 1000 in Indian Wells, along with events in Winston-Salem and Dusseldorf.
They made the semis in Washington and the quarters at Halle, Houston, Montpelier, Doha and the recent US Open where they beat another one of the teams coming back to KL, Julian Knowle and Jurgen Melzer. Additionally, they made the last 16 at Wimbledon and the French Open.
Knowle and Melzer are renewing their highly successful partnership. Knowle is a former US Open finalist and Melzer has won two Grand Slams. Together they have won four titles and reached another eight finals.
Nikolay Davydenko, the very first singles champion at the Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur will be teaming up with his compatriot Dmitry Tursunov; this will be their second time playing together this year.
Another team rekindling a partnership are Brazilian Marcelo Melo, a Slam finalist, and Andre Sa, while Grand Slam winner Lukas Dlouhy will team up with the experienced Aussie Paul Hanley.
The doubles draw features players from 15 difference countries. Combined with the singles draw players, this means that so far, players from 22 countries are so far represented in the tournament. The singles qualifying draw, which will be conducted once ‘sign in’ is concluded on Friday night (Sept 20) will increase the number of countries represented to close to 30.
Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that former Wimbledon Champion Pat Cash will arrive in KL to host a tournament edition of CNN’s Rado-sponsored ‘Open Court’ tennis magazine show, the first time it has been hosted at an ATP 250 tournament. The show is broadcast globally on CNN International.
Said Tournament Director Freyer, “We are tremendously honoured that Pat Cash and Open Court have decided to film an edition of Open Court in KL – We treasure the relationship we have with CNN. This is reward to everyone that works so hard on the Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur.”
The Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur is sanctioned by the Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia. In addition to the distinguished support of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Malaysia and Tourism Malaysia, the event is proud to have prestigious commercial sponsors that include Rado, CNN International, the DoubleTree by Hilton Kuala Lumpur, Wilson, 100 Plus, the Albukhary Foundation, Astro, the ATP World Tour’s Premier Partner Corona, and Platinum Partner Ricoh.
Tickets prices remain very reasonable and range from RM 10 to RM 120, and there will be free admission between Saturday, September 21 and Tuesday, September 24. Tickets can be purchased on-line via the tournament website http://www.malaysianopentennis.com/2013/tickets.php, at TicketCharge outlets or through the ticket hotline at TicketCharge Ph: 603-92228811
For more information on the tournament, visit www.MalaysianOpenTennis.com
