ATP Challenger series tournament to be held in Sofia in 2009
Updated on: 20.11.2008, 18:14
Published on: 20.11.2008, 18:11
For the first time in Bulgaria's tennis history, the country will host a tournament part of the ATP Challenger Series.
It is scheduled for April 18-26 2009, the main sponsor of the event Zagorka brewery told a November 17 2008 news conference in Sofia.
The event will have 85 000 euro in prize money and will be co-organised by Levski tennis club in Sofia and Zagorka. Zagorka has been sponsoring tennis tournaments from the Futures Series for the past 13 years in Bulgaria and now the company has decided to take its sponsorship a step further.
"That's why we will organise a Challenger tournament next year and we hope it will gather some of the most talented Bulgarian and foreign tennis players," Jan Derck Van Karnebeek, Zagorka's executive director said.
Organisers expect the participation of Bulgaria's rising tennis star Grigor Dimitrov, currently ranked 482 in the ATP list, who this year won a number of titles among which the junior titles at Wimbledon and the US Open.
"We are in talks with Dimitrov as we speak and we are confident that he will take part in the tournament," Levski's general secretary Dimitar Voinov said. Some players from the ATP Top 100 could also take part.