With the Australian summer of tennis currently underway, Canberra is set to host world-class tennis as the ATP Challenger tour returns to Canberra from 8-13 January.
Israel’s Dudi Sela at the East Hotel Canberra Challenger event in 2017
Israel’s Dudi Sela is back to defend the title he won in 2017, along with 12 other top 100 players, many of which will be heading down to Melbourne to compete in the Australian Open from 15 January through to 28 January 2018.
Germany’s Florian Mayer is the second seed, ranked at 69. Mayer had reached a career-high ranking of 18 back in 2011. Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez ranked 70 is the third seed, next is 73rd ranked Thomas Fabbiano from Italy, 74th ranked Mikhail Kukushkin from Kazakhstan.
Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert returns ranked at 81, Dominican Republic’s Victor Estrella Burgos 83rd, Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics 85th, Italy’s Andreas Seppi 86th and a former top 20 player, who like Mayer had reached no. 18 back in 2013. Serbia’s Laslo Djere is ranked 88, Germany’s Maximilian Marterer at 90, Argentina’s Nicolas Kicker at 95 and Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri rounds out the top 100 players in the tournament with a ranking of 98.
Australia is represented by Omar Jasika and Maverick Banes. Both players have been to Canberra in 2017. Jasika is ranked at 275 and Banes at 300.
Maverick Banes plays a backhand volley in his round two doubles match against Marc Polmans and New Zealand’s Rubin Statham. Banes teamed up with Gavin Van Peperzeel. (Photo by Rob Keating, http://photos.keatingmedia.com.au)
Omar Jasika hits a forehand against Japan’s Tara Daniel. Apis Canberra International Tennis. (Photo by Rob Keating, http://photos.keatingmedia.com.au) @OJasika #ApisCBRIntl #protour
Qualifying for the tournament starts on January 6, and the main draw is scheduled to start on Monday 8 January.
This tournament is a good opportunity for Canberrans to witness world-class players. Some could be the big stars of tomorrow. Last year Canada’s Denis Shapovalov came into the tournament ranked at 247 and he had a breakthrough year on the ATP tour and returns to Australia ranked at 51 after reaching a career-high 49 on 23 October. Last year’s finalist, Jan-Lennard Struff from Germany is another player to go onto bigger things. He climbed 20 places on the rankings to reach his career high of 44 in May 2017.
Dudi Sela with his winner’s trophy after winning the 2017 East Hotel Canberra Challenger against Jan-Lennard Struff from Germany.
Dudi Sela with the Israeli Ambassador to Australia
Dudi Sela plays a backhand against Jan-Lennard Struff in the 2017 final of the East Hotel Canberra Challenger tennis event.
