Austrian Dominic Thiem and Canadian Denis Shapovalov are the main players in the ninety-ninth edition of the Copa del Rey de Tennisa traditional tournament, the oldest in this sport played in Spain, based at the Real Club Recreativo de Huelva and on this occasion will be held on July 11 and 12.
The organizational entity, which presented this Wednesday to the Huelva City Council the preview of the poster of the participants, promoted the names of Dominic Thiem, Denis Shapovalov and Pablo Llamas, to which the fourth tennis player will be added.
The event will also have on the program a match between the Russian Elina Avanesyan and the Polish Magda Linettewho will fight to succeed Spaniard Rebeka Masarova, who won the first women’s Copa del Rey last year.
Avanesyan, 21, reached number 62 in the WTA rankings, while her rival, 32, reached number 19 in the world last year.
In the men’s team, the best ranked in the ATP ranking is Thiem (30 years old), currently number 93 and reached third place in 2020, the year in which he won the United States Open.
Also in 2020 he lost in the Australian Open final to Serbian Novak Djokovic and, in addition, he was a finalist at Roland Garros in 2018 and 2019, where he lost to Rafa Nadal. The first Master 1000 of his career was won at Indian Wells in 2019 against Roger Federer.
The other confirmed star of the tournament is Shapovalov, 25, a naturalized Canadian but born in Israel.
With the rest of the Canadian team, he won the ATP Cup in 2022 and in 2019 they lost the Davis Cup final in Spain. At the age of 18 he reached the final of the Canadian Masters by defeating the Argentine Juan Martín del Potro and the Spanish Rafa Nadal, then world number 1.
The Spanish representation is currently held by Pablo Llamas, 21 years old and from Jerez de la Frontera. Last year it reached the 133rd place in the world ranking.
Source: La Verdad
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