HCMC - David Nalbandian of Argentina, Tommy Haas of Germany and Robby Ginepri of the U.S. have pulled out of the Heineken Stars 2010 tennis tournament in HCMC this weekend because of injuries, organizers said.
David Nalbandian, former World No. 3, currently ranked 33rd in the world, will be replaced by Mardy Fish from the U.S., currently seeded 19.
Mardy Fish is the 2008 US Open quarterfinalist and the silver medalist at Olympic Athens 2004. The U.S. player lost to Roger Federer 1-2 at the ATP Masters Tour 1000 Cincinnati in the finals. Fish was an ATP London 2010 finalist after beating Andy Murray in the semis.
Tommy Haas will be replaced by world No. 42 Tommy Robredo from Spain. Robredo earned nine ATP World Tour men’s singles titles and three ATP World Tour men’s doubles titles.
Meanwhile, Robby Ginepri, currently ranks 102nd on ATP rankings was a winner of the ATP Tour Indianapolis 2009, was the third player pull out from the tournament in the last minutes.
Ginepri who is 102 seed will be replaced by 33 seed Juan Monaco from Argentina. Monaco was winner of the Austria Open, Buenos Aires and Poertschach in 2007 and he won two men’s doubles titles in Valencia and Auckland in 2008.
The three players will compete Friday and Saturday at Phu Tho Gymnasium in HCMC with world No. 22 Sam Querrey from the U.S., who was a winner of the Serbia Open 2010 at the Heineken Stars 2010.
The four superstars will play knockout tennis with both winners advancing through to the finals. The champion will receive US$40,000, the runner-up US$20,000 and the two others, who will only play one game each, US$10,000.
This is the third time the Heineken Stars has taken place in Vietnam. The second tournament in 2008 included Jo Wilfried Tsonga, Tomas Berdych, Robin Soderling and Mardy Fish. Tsonga was the champion after defeating Soderling.
The Heineken Stars 2010 is being organized by the Vietnam Tennis Federation in conjunction with Heineken’s local manufacturer Vietnam Brewery Ltd., and locally based TLT Sports Marketing.
