AIRCEL OPEN: DAY 4 MEDIA NOTES Thursday, January 7, 2016

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

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SEEDS PAIRE, MULLER; LAST YEAR’S FINALIST BEDENE EYE QUARTERS

 DAY 4 PREVIEW: Second round action concludes at the Aircel Chennai Open on Thursday with No. 3 seed Benoit Paire, No. 6 Gilles Muller, last year’s runner-up Aljaz Bedene and headlining the schedule. In addition, a doubles quarter-final is the last match on Stadium with No. 2 seeds and taking on Austin Krajicek and Paire.

In the opening match on Stadium Court, Paire and Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic square off for the third time (tied 1-1), the first on hard courts. Paire won the first meeting on clay in in 2012 while Rosol came back to win the last meeting at Wimbledon in ’14. Paire, who was named last year’s ATP Comeback Player of the Year after climbing from No. 118 in ’14 to No. 19, reached the semi-finals here in 2013. Rosol is playing in Chennai for the first time.

In the second match on, a first career ATP World Tour quarter-final is on the line as wild card Ramanathan takes on lucky loser of Russia for the first time. The 21- year-old Ramanathan is trying to become the first Indian to reach the quarter-finals in Chennai since two years ago (l. to Pospisil). The 30-year-old Kudryavtsev took the place of No. 2 seed in the main draw. He has a 5-13 career record on the ATP World Tour and three of his wins have come in Chennai, all as a qualifier.

On Court 1, qualifier of looks to reach his first career ATP World Tour quarter-final as he takes on No. 6 Muller, who is trying to reach his third quarter-final in Chennai (2006, ’15). Coming into this week Fabbiano had an 0-6 career record on the ATP World Tour. In their previous meeting at the -2 Challenger in 2012, Muller won in three sets. In the next match on, last year’s finalist Bedene meets Italian Luca Vanni. The British No. 2 won the previous meeting at the Slovenia Futures #3 in 2010 in straight sets.

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DAY 4 FEDEX ATP HEAD 2 HEADS – In Order of Play by Court

STADIUM COURT

[3] Benoit Paire (FRA) vs Lukas Rosol (CZE) Tied 1-1 12 Barcelona (Spain) Clay R64 Benoit Paire 6-3 7-5 14 Wimbledon (Great Britain) Grass R128 Lukas Rosol 6-3 3-6 7-6(5) 6-4

Aircel Chennai Open Day 4 – Thursday, January 7, 2016 Page 2 of 3 www.ATPWorldTour.com

Paire 2015 FastFacts: W: Bastad (d Robredo); F: Tokyo (l Wawrinka); QF: Hamburg (l Pouille) 2015 W-L: 25-17 (12-9 on hard) 2015 Titles: 1 / Career Titles: 1 Date of Birth: May 8, 1989 Emirates ATP Ranking: 19 Chennai W-L (Best Result): 5-3 (SF in 2013)

• The 26-year-old Frenchman has a 5-3 match record in Chennai, reaching SFs in 2013 (l. to Bautista Agut) and QFs in ’14 (l. to Granollers). Made debut in ’12 and lost in 2R (l. to Sela) • In 2015, Frenchman rose nearly 100 places to end at career-high No. 19 after injury-plagued ’14 season when he finished at No. 118 • Became 1st player since Darcis in 2007 to win a Futures, Challenger and ATP World Tour title in same season • Won 1st ATP World Tour title without dropping a set at Båstad in July (d. Goffin in 2R and Robredo in final) • Posted career-best result by advancing to US Open 4R, saving 2 MPs in 1R win over No. 4 Nishikori (l. to Tsonga) • Defeated Nishikori for 2nd straight time to reach Tokyo final (l. to No. 4 Wawrinka) • Also reached Roland Garros 3R (l. to No. 4 Berdych) and Wimbledon 2R (l. to Bautista Agut). Failed to qualify at (l. to Ymer in Q1) • Won Futures title at Bressuire, FRA (d. Teixeira) and Challenger titles at , ITA (d. Nedovyesov); Quimper, FRA (d. Barrere); and Mouilleron Le Captif, FRA

FRENCHMEN IN TOP 50: Paire was one of seven Frenchmen in last year’s Top 50 Emirates ATP Rankings: No. 9 No. 10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga No. 15 Gilles Simon No. 19 Benoit Paire No. 24 Gael Monfils No. 31 Jeremy Chardy No. 47 Adrian Mannarino

Rosol 2015 FastFacts: QF (3): (l Garcia-Lopez); Munich (l Murray); Vienna (l Monfils) 2015 W-L: 20-30 (13-18 on hard) 2015 Titles: 0 / Career Titles: 2 Date of Birth: July 24, 1985 Emirates ATP Ranking: 55 Chennai W-L (Best Result): 1-0 (2R in 2016)

• The 30-year-old Czech Republic native made his debut on Tuesday, defeating Colombian No. 1 Santiago Giraldo 63 64 • In 2015, No. 3 Czech finished in Top 100 Emirates ATP Rankings for 5th straight season at No. 55 • Reached 3R at Roland Garros (d. Bautista Agut, l. to Gabashvili), matching career-best showing at a Grand Slam (also 2011 Roland Garros and 2012 Wimbledon) • Beat No. 10 Tsonga in Vienna 2R to snap 14-match losing streak vs. Top 10 opponents (l. to Monfils in QF) • Advanced to ATP Masters 1000 Indian Wells 4R (l. to No. 9 Berdych), Bucharest QF (l. to Garcia-Lopez) and Munich QF (l. to No. 3 Murray in 3 sets) • Has not reached a SF since winning 2014 Winston-Salem title (d. Janowicz in final) • Qualified and reached 2R at Geneva (l. to No. 9 Wawrinka in 3 sets) and ATP Masters 1000 Paris (l. to No. 6 Nadal) • Defeated Bhambri en route to CZE’s 4-1 win over IND in World Group Play-off

Aircel Chennai Open Day 4 – Thursday, January 7, 2016 Page 3 of 3 www.ATPWorldTour.com

[WC] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs [LL) Alexander Kudryavtsev (RUS) First Meeting

Ramanathan 2015 FastFacts: 2015 W-L: 0-2 (0-2 on hard) 2015 Titles: 0 / Career Titles: 0 Date of Birth: November 8, 1994 Emirates ATP Ranking: 248 Chennai W-L (Best Result): 2-2 (2R in 2014, ‘16)

• The 21-year-old Indian is making his 3rd straight main draw appearance, having qualified two years ago (d. Devvarman, l. to Granollers). Last year as a wild card lost to Ito in 1R. Opened on Tuesday with a 62 60 win over Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver • In 2015, played mostly on Futures and Challenger level. Played in two ATP World Tour main draw tournaments, falling in 1R in Chennai (l. to Ito) and Kuala Lumpur (l. to Kukushkin). Played in qualifying at Australian Open (1R), Roland Garros (2R) and US Open (2R) • In Futures, won 4 titles on home soil, at India #6 in May, India #13 in September, India #16 in November and India #19 in December. Also runner-up at India #3 in March and Turkey #40 in October. • In Challengers, best result QF at Kolkata, IND in February and Izmir, TUR in September

Year-end Emirates ATP Rankings 2015: 260 2014: 214 2013: 704 2012: 1,036 2011: 926

Kudryavtsev 2015 FastFacts: 2015 W-L: 0-2 (0-2 on hard) 2015 Titles: 0 / Career Titles: 0 Date of Birth: October 26, 1985 Emirates ATP Ranking: 164 Chennai W-L (Best Result): 3-3 (2R in 2008, ’11, ‘14)

• The 30-year-old Russian is making his 4th main draw appearance (3-3 record), first as a lucky loser. Took place of No. 2 seed Kevin Anderson, who withdrew due to a left knee injury. Qualified into main draw three previous times, reaching 2R each time: in 2008 (d. P. Amritraj, l. to Moya), ’11 (d. Bhambri, l. to Tipsarevic) and ’14 (d. Bautista Agut, l. to Bedene) • In 2015, qualified at Australian Open (l. to Matosevic in 5 sets in 1R) and as main draw in Montpellier (l. to Pouille in 1R), only tour level appearances of season • In Challenger, reached final at Fergana (ret. vs. Gabashvili) in June and at Toyota (l. to Nishioka) in final week of season. Also SF at Portoroz in August and Pune in October

Year-end Emirates ATP Rankings 2015: 164 2008: 208 2014: 119 2007: 248 2013: 265 2006: 660 2012: 271 2005: 815 2011: 158 2004: 1,008 2010: 159 2003: 1,203 2009: 205 2002: 1,345

COURT 1 [Q] Thomas Fabbiano (ITA) vs [6] Gilles Muller (LUX) First ATP Meeting Other meeting: 12 Rome-2 CH (Italy) Clay QF Gilles Muller 6-3 3-6 6-3

Aljaz Bedene (GBR) vs Luca Vanni (ITA) First ATP Meeting Other meeting: 10 Slovenia F3 (Slovenia) Clay R32 Aljaz Bedene 6-1 6-1