BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy: Gilles Simon – main favourite. ATP names the tournament as the best of the 250 points circuit

Gilles Simon (14th ATP – three times winner in Bucharest) will be the main favourite at the “BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy” tennis tournament which will take place from April 18 to 26, at the “BNR Arenas” in Bucharest. Tennis players such as Ivo Carlovic, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Lukas Rosol, Viktor Troicki, Sam Querrey and Borna Coric will be present in Bucharest, hotnews.ro informs.

“The last player registered is the no.71st ATP, which has never happened before. The main favourite is Gilles Simon, while Sam Querrey will come for the first time in Romania. An interesting tennis player is Borna Coric, the 17-year old Croat, who this year defeated Andy Murray. Marcos Baghdatis has also announced that he will participate in the tournament. Marius Copil will receive a wildcard and we hope he will be relaxed,” said Bogdan Enoiu, tournament organizer, in a press conference on Wednesday.

Gilles Simon will be seeded number one. The other seven favourites are, in order, Ivo Karlovic (Croatia – 24^th ATP), Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spain – 26^th ATP), Lukas Rosol (Czech Republic – 30^th ATP), Andreas Seppi (Italy – 31^st ATP), Florian Mayer (Germany – ATP 565^th – ranking before injury is protected) – Viktor Troicki (Serbia – 39^th ATP), Sam Querrey (USA – 43^rd ATP).

Last year’s winner, Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria – ATP 11^th), did not sign up for the tournament in Barcelona (500 points – will be played in the same week as the tournament in Bucharest) and could receive a wild card from the organizers. The same situation is valid for Gaël Monfils (France – 18^th ATP).

For the doubles event, Horia Tecau/Jean-Julien Rojer (Romania/Netherlands) will be the main favourite, while Dominic Inglot/Florin Mergea (Romania/UK) will be seeded number two.

This year’s demonstrative match will take place on April 25 and will gather along former tennis players Andrei Pavel, Ilie Nastase, Henri Leconte and Mansour Bahrami.

BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy is to award total prizes worth EUR 439,405 and will have total costs of organizing the tournament amounting to EUR 1 million.

Ilie Nastase: For me it does not matter who wins

Bogdan Enoiu, BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy organizer, said on Wednesday in a press conference in Bucharest that the tournament has been designated by the ATP as the best competition in the category of 250 points.

“In our modest class of 250 points, we are the best tournament in the circuit, according to ATP,” said Enoiu.

He said that tickets for the semi-finals and finals this year have been sold at a rate of 60 percent. “Unlike other years, all subscriptions were sold in one day, in total 250, and for the semi-finals and finals they were sold at a rate of 60 percent,” said Enoiu.

Bogdan Enoiu stated that it would withdraw from the tournament organizer office when in Bucharest will play Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Former ATP leader Ilie Nastase argues that he does not care who will win. “The tournament is growing year by year. For me it does not matter who wins; it may be won by world number 200, it isn’t necessary that the best tennis player wins,” said Nastase.

File photo: BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy