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Home , 2009 Chennai Open, Andrey Rublev, Andre Begemann, Andy Ram, Artem Sitak, Dick Norman

AIRCEL OPEN: PREVIEW & DAY 1 MEDIA NOTES Monday, January 4, 2016

SDAT Stadium, Chennai, | January 4-10, 2016 Draw: S-28, D-16 | Prize Money: $425,535 | Surface: Outdoor Hard

ATP Info: Tournament Info: ATP PR & Marketing: www.ATPWorldTour.com www.aircelchennaiopen.org Fabienne Benoit: [email protected] Twitter: @ATPWorldTour @chennaiopen Facebook: facebook.com/ATPWorldTour facebook.com/chennaiopen Press Room: +91 44 32220412

AIRCEL CHENNAI OPEN TALKING POINTS

 TOURNAMENT PREVIEW: The Aircel Chennai Open returns for the 21st consecutive year on the ATP World Tour, kicking the 2016 off with a field that features the winningest singles and doubles player in tournament history. (3 singles) and (6 doubles) have won more Chennai titles than any other players in history. Wawrinka returns as the No. 1 seed in singles, while Paes and are the No. 2 seeds in doubles.

Among the players challenging Wawrinka this week are and Benoit Paire. The second-seeded Anderson broke into the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings on Oct. 12 after reaching the US Open quarter-finals. Paire, too, enjoyed a successful US Open campaign. He advanced to the fourth round in New York City and arrives in Chennai at a career-high No. 19.

Paire and Wawrinka, the 2013 Chennai doubles champions, are playing with different partners in 2016: Paire with and Wawrinka with Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. , a five-time champion with Paes, is teaming with first-time partner Gilles Muller. Bhupathi and Paes, who teamed at the inaugural event in 1996, are both playing doubles in Chennai for the 16th time.

 DAY 1 PREVIEW: Three singles and two doubles matches comprise Monday’s order of play at the Aircel Chennai Open. and go -to-head twice on Stadium Court as Nicolas Almagro meets qualifier Ante Pavic, then Marcel Granollers faces No. 8 seed Borna Coric. The 19-year-old Coric led all teenagers with 26 wins on the ATP World Tour in 2015. In the other singles match on Monday’s schedule, of Australia takes on Evgeny Dosnkoy of .

 SINGLES HONOR ROLL (since 2006)

YEAR CHAMPION RUNNER-UP SCORE

2015 Stan Wawrinka Aljaz Bedene 6-3, 6-4

2014 Stan Wawrinka Edouard Roger-Vasselin 7-5, 6-2 2013 Janko Tipsarevic 3-6, 6-1, 6-3

2012 Janko Tipsarevic 6-7(4), 7-6(4), 7-6(4)

2011 Stan Wawrinka 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 2010 Marin Cilic Stan Wawrinka 7-6(2), 7-6(3)

2009 Marin Cilic 6-4, 7-6(3)

2008 6-0, 6-1

2007 Xavier Malisse 6-1, 6-3 2006 Ivan Ljubicic Carlos Moya 7-6(6), 6-2

BOLD: Players in 2016 singles draw Aircel Chennai Open Day 1 – Monday, January 4, 2016 Page 2 of 4 www.ATPWorldTour.com

 DOUBLES HONOR ROLL (since 2006)

YEAR CHAMPION RUNNER-UP 2015 Yen-Hsun Lu/ /Leander Paes 2014 Johan Brunstrom/ /Mate Pavic 2013 Benoit Paire/Stan Wawrinka / 2012 Leander Paes/Janko Tipsarevic / 2011 Mahesh Bhupathi/Leander Paes / 2010 Marcel Granollers/Santiago Ventura Yen-Hsun Lu/Janko Tipsarevic 2009 / Jean-Claude Scherrer/Stan Wawrinka 2008 / / 2007 Xavier Malisse/ Rafael Nadal/Bartolome Salva-Vidal 2006 Michal Mertinak/Petr Pala / BOLD: Players in 2016 doubles draw

 WHO TO WATCH IN SINGLES

SEED PLAYER CHENNAI W-L BEST FINISH 1 Stan Wawrinka 19-4 2011, 2014-15 Champion 2 Kevin Anderson 0-0 2016 Debut 3 Benoit Paire 5-3 2013 Semi-finalist 4 Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3 2013 Runner-up 5 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 8-5 2005 Semi-finalist 6 Gilles Muller 4-3 2006, 2015 Quarter-finalist 7 2-2 2014 Semi-finalist 8 Borna Coric 1-1 2015 Round of 16

 WILD CARDS (3)  YOUNGEST (RUS) (RUS) – 18 years, 2 months (IND) Andrey Rublev (RUS)  OLDEST Gilles Muller (LUX) – 32 years, 7 months  QUALIFIERS (4) Somdev Devvarman (IND)  TOP COUNTRY BREAKDOWN (ITA) Spain (5), Russia (3), Croatia (2), India (2), Jozef Kovalik (SVK) (2), United States (2) Ante Pavic (CRO)

Aircel Chennai Open Day 1 – Monday, January 4, 2016 Page 3 of 4 www.ATPWorldTour.com

 WHO TO WATCH IN DOUBLES

SEED TEAM BEST FINISH Klaasen: 2015 Runner-up 1 Raven Klaasen/Rajeev Ram Ram: 2009 Champion Granollers: 2010 Champion 2 Marcel Granollers/Leander Paes Paes: 1997-99, 2002, 2011-12 Champion Marach: 2009 Quarter-finalist 3 / Martin: 2016 Debut Daniell: 2016 Debut 4 / Sitak: 2016 Debut

 EMIRATES ATP RANKING POINTS AND PRIZE MONEY

W FSFQFR16 R32 SINGLES RANKING POINTS 250 150 90 45 20* 0 SINGLES PRIZE MONEY ($) $75,700 $39,870 $21,600 $12,300 $7,250 $4,295 DOUBLES RANKING POINTS 250 150 90 45 0 — DOUBLES PRIZE MONEY ($) $23,000 $12,090 $6,550 $3,750 $2,200 — * Second-round losers who received a first-round bye earn 0 points

DAY 1 FEDEX ATP HEAD 2 HEADS – In Order of Play

STADIUM COURT

Nicolas Almagro (ESP) vs. [Q] Ante Pavic (CRO) First Meeting

Almagro 2015 FastFacts SF (2): (l. to Monaco); Kitzbühel (l. to Mathieu) QF (3): São Paulo (l. to Cuevas); Casablanca (l. to Klizan); Estoril (l. to Gasquet) 2015 W-L: 18-20 (2-6 on hard) 2015 Titles: 0 / Career Titles: 12 Date of Birth: August 21, 1985 Emirates ATP Ranking: 73 Chennai W-L (Best Result): 1-1 (2012 Semi-finalist)

Pavic 2015 FastFacts 2015 W-L: 0-2 (0-1 on hard) 2015 Titles: 0 / Career Titles: 0 Date of Birth: March 7, 1989 Emirates ATP Ranking: 449 Chennai W-L (Best Result): 7-4 (Main Draw Debut)

Aircel Chennai Open Day 1 – Monday, January 4, 2016 Page 4 of 4 www.ATPWorldTour.com

[8] Borna Coric (CRO) vs. Marcel Granollers (ESP) Coric Leads 1-0 15 Umag (Croatia) Clay R32 Borna Coric 6-3 6-3

Coric 2015 FastFacts SF (2): Dubai (l. to Federer); Nice (l. to L. Mayer); QF (3): Estoril (l. to Garcia-Lopez); Umag (l. to Bautista Agut); Winston-Salem (l. to Anderson) 2015 W-L: 26-28 (12-18 on hard) 2015 Titles: 0 / Career Titles: 0 Date of Birth: November 14, 1996 Emirates ATP Ranking: 44 Chennai W-L (Best Result): 1-1 (2015 Round of 16)

Granollers 2015 FastFacts SF: (l. to Seppi) 2015 W-L: 14-21 (6-11 on hard) 2015 Titles: 0 / Career Titles: 4 Date of Birth: April 12, 1986 Emirates ATP Ranking: 84 Chennai W-L (Best Result): 7-4 (2009, 2014 Semi-finalist)

COURT 1

John Millman (AUS) vs. (RUS) First ATP Meeting Other Meeting: 15 Q (Turkey) Clay 2R Evgeny Donskoy 6-4 6-1