The PTT Thailand Open will be a tight affair with a fantastic group of established and rising stars confirming their participation in the USD608,500 event.

     Top 10 stars Rafael Nadal, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gilles Simon will lead the field and they will be joined by a host of other top competitors including Bangkok favourites Jarkko Nieminen of Finland, Grand Slam champion Marat Safin and former Thailand Open finalist Benjamin Becker of Germany.

     Other players who will be hard to beat on the indoor courts at Impact Arena include a pair of big-serving Americans: Sam Querrey, ranked #23 will be returning for his second visit and competing for the first time will be 206 cm giant John Isner.

     Adding further strength to the field are rising stars world #31 Victor Troicki of Serbia, #35 Dudi Sela of Israel, and Germans #39 Philipp Petzschner, #40 Andreas Beck and #53 Mischa Zverev.

     PTT Thailand Open Executive Committee chairman Mr. Suwat Liptapanlop added that the top stars would not find the competition easy: “There are so many highly-ranked players. Every match is going to be dangerous.”
Two more Frenchmen will join Tsonga and Simon in trying to keep the King’s Cup in French hands: Julien Benneteau, and “The Magician” Fabrice Santoro who will be making his last appearance at the tournament having announced his retirement at the end of this year.

     Rounding out the truly international flavour of the competition are Austrian Jurgen Melzer, Marcos Daniel of Brazil, Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Leonardo Mayer of Argentina and Thailand’s own Danai Udomchoke. The last eight players in the field are still to be finalised.

     The PTT Thailand Open will be held from 26 September to 4 October at Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani. Tickets start at just Bt300 and are available from all Thaiticketmajor outlets, at www.thaiticketmajor.com or by calling 02 262 3456.