Denis Kudla will compete in the Citi Open this month as a wild card entrant
WASHINGTON—July 3, 2013—Denis Kudla, the Washington Metropolitan Area’s homegrown promising tennis star, today received a wild card to compete in the main draw of the Citi OpenSM, the capital tennis tradition and
ATP World Tour 500-level tournament. The tournament will be held July 27-August 4 at the William H.G. Fitzgerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park.
The 20-year-old Arlington, Va., native is currently ranked a career high No. 105 on the Emirates ATP Rankings, and is poised to make his debut in the top 100 after Wimbledon this year. He returns to the D.C. tournament main draw for a second time in his career.
“I have grown up watching and attending the Washington, D.C., tournament,” Kudla said. “Having the opportunity to play in the main draw of the Citi Open in front of my hometown fans is really exciting.”
Born in Kiev, Ukraine, Kudla trained at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Md., from the age of 8 to 18. So far in 2013, Kudla qualified for both the French Open and Wimbledon—where he reached the second round of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career. This year, he also reached the quarterfinals at the Aegon Championships in London where he defeated the No. 25 ranked player in the world in straight sets (6-3, 6-4). He has won three ATP Challengers titles in his career and reached the quarterfinals of the 2011 ATP World Tour 250-level event in Newport.
Kudla will compete against some of the world’s best at the Citi Open—the main draw for the men’s singles features an impressive 17 players in the top 50 of the Emirates ATP Rankings. The list includes World No. 7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga; No. 11 Kei Nishikori; No. 13 Tommy Haas; No. 15 Canadian Milos Raonic; top Americans Sam Querrey and John Isner; defending champion Alexandr Dolgopolov; fan favorites James Blake, Mardy Fish,Gael Monfils, Lleyton Hewitt; and many more.
The Citi Open is one of only 11 elite ATP World Tour 500-level events worldwide and the only one held in the United States. The event is also part of the prestigious Emirates Airline US Open Series, the five-week summer tennis season that links nine North American hard-court tournaments to the final Grand Slam of the year, the US Open. In addition, the Citi Open features a WTA International Tournament which provides fans the opportunity to watch simultaneous competitions of both world-class men’s and women’s tennis throughout the nine-day event. The tournament features 48 men’s singles players and 16 doubles teams, 32 women’s singles players and 16 doubles teams.
