Tennis Atlantic

MAIN DRAW RELEASED; HAAS, GINEPRI, RUSSELL IN QUALIFYING

Qualifying FREE; Starts at 10 a.m. Saturday

The main draw for the 2012 US Men’s Clay Court Championship was made Friday at River Oaks Country Club in advance of the tournament there next week, April 9-15. The top four seeds for the tournament — No. 1 Mardy Fish, No. 2 John Isner, No. 3 Feliciano Lopez and No. 4 Juan Monaco — all have first round byes. The remaining 20 players were placed for their opening round matches.

In addition, the qualifying draw was made, and the three-round qualifying event will feature 2004 tournament champion Tommy Haas, 2005 US Open semifinalist Robby Ginepri, Houston resident Michael Russell and top seed Go Soeda, who is ranked No. 79 on the ATP World Tour.

There is no admission charge for the qualifying rounds, which begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday.    

ORDER OF PLAY – SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 2012

COURT 3 start 10:00 am  

Qualifying – Frank Moser (GER) vs (8) Michael Yani (USA)    

Qualifying – Harry Fowler (USA) vs (WC) Nicholas Naumann (USA)    

Qualifying – Alex Kuznetsov (USA) vs Robby Ginepri (USA)

COURT 4 start 10:00 am    

Qualifying – Dennis Lajola (USA) vs Jan Hernych (CZE)    

Qualifying – Mischa Zverev (GER) vs Daniel Kosakowski    

Qualifying – Chris Wettengel (USA) vs James Cerretani (USA)

COURT 5 start 10:00 am    

Qualifying – Catalin-Ionut Gard (ROU) vs Scott Lipsky (USA)    

Qualifying – Denes Lukacs (HUN) vs Amrit Narasimhan (USA)    

Qualifying – Joshua Zavala (USA) vs Peter Polansky (CAN)

QUALIFYING FIRST ROUND BYES    Go Soeda (JPN)    Horacio Zeballos (ARG)    Ricardo Mello (BRA)    Michael Russell (USA)    Tommy Haas (GER)    Teymuraz Gabashvili (RUS)    Yichi Sugita (JPN)

NOTES – This marks the second year in a row a former champion has played in qualifying at the US Men’s Clay Court Championship. Tommy Haas, who has a bye in the 2012 qualifying draw, won the event in 2004. The 2007 champion Ivo Karlovic successfully qualified last year. – Qualifying is a rare event for Tommy Haas. This is just the seventh time since he began playing on the ATP World Tour in 1996 that he has played qualifying. He has successfully reached the main draw just twice in his previous six attempts, including last fall in Vienna where he reached the quarterfinals. – Five participants in the US Men’s Clay Court Championship are playing Davis Cup this weekend. Ryan Harrison and John Isner split their matches in an away tie at Franch on Friday. Ivo Karlovic was defeated in straight sets as Croatia is playing at Argentina where Juan Monaco is on the team but has not played. Joao Souza is representing Brazil in a home zonal tie against Colombia. – Thirteen different countries are represented in the main draw for the 2012 US Men’s Clay Court Championship, led by eight Americans. Argentina, Russia and Spain are the only other countries with multiple players, as each have two in the field.

ONLY LIMITED TICKETS REMAIN for the 2012 US Men’s Clay Court Championship. Information on tickets can be found at www.mensclaycourt.com or by calling 713-527-0345. Once again, the US Men’s Clay Court Championship will provide the Texas Children’s Ticket Turnback program. Any fans holding tickets for a session that they cannot use are invited to return those tickets to the box office where they will be sold for face value and the entire resale price will be donated to Texas Children’s Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Institute.