The draw for the 2011 Farmers Classic, presented by Mercedes-Benz, was made Friday night at the LA Tennis Center's Straus Stadium. Late additions to the 2011 field included the last direct acceptance James Blake, as well as wild cards for two-time Farmers Classic champion Tommy Haas, American Robby Ginepri and 2011 NCAA Champion Steve Johnson from USC.
Nineteen-year-old Ryan Harrison earned a spot in the main draw as a special exempt by reaching the Atlanta semifinals. Harrison is the first American teenager to reach an ATP World Tour semifinal since Sam Querrey at the Indianapolis tournament in 2007.
The top two seeds for the 2011 tournament are Mardy Fish, the No. 1 ranked American, and Juan Martin del Potro, the 2008 Los Angeles champion who won the US Open in 2009. Fish, del Potro, third seed Marcos Baghdatis and fourth seed Thomaz Bellucci all have first round byes in the draw.
The remaining four seeded positions went to, in order, Xavier Malisse, Dmitry Tursunov, Grigor Dimitrov and Igor Kunitsyn.
First round matches of note include Johnson against 2005 Farmers Classic finalist Gilles Muller, who is also through to the semifinals in Atlanta. The winner of that match will play Fish in the second round.
Harrison will play another young talent in 21-year-old Richard Berankis. Haas drew No. 7 seed Dimitrov in the opening round. Former Australian Open finalist Fernando Gonzalez drew No. 8 Kunitsyn. Another intriguing match will pit Xavier Malisse against Ernests Gulbis. Blake drew Germany's Michael Berrer, and the winner will play del Potro in the second round.
One player missing from the 2011 field is Querrey who is still recovering from a June elbow surgery. Querrey had won the LA title in 2009 and 2010, was looking to join Fred Perry and Don Budge as the only players to three-peat in Los Angeles.
Here's a look at the
Singles Main Draw.
The qualifying draw was also made on Friday night. Thirty-two players will battle this weekend for four spots in the main draw. The first and second rounds of qualifying are FREE. Play begins Sunday at 10 a.m. at the Sycamore Courts on UCLA's campus.
ORDER OF PLAY - SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011
SYCAMORE 1 start 10:00 am
[WC] Cecil Mamiit (PHI) vs [5] Tim Smyczek (USA)
Denis Kudla (USA) vs [6] Chirs Guccione (AUS)
Luis Antonio Perez-Perez (ESP) vs [8] Carsten Ball (AUS)
[4] Yuichi Sugita (JPN) vs [WC] Clay Thompson (USA)
SYCAMORE 2 start 10:00 am
Marcos Giron (USA) vs Artem Sitak (NZL)
Marcelo Melo (BRA) vs Jamie Murray (GBR)
Lauryna Grigelis (LTU) vs Phillip Simmonds (USA)
Harel Srugo (ISR) vs Nicolas Massu (CHI)
SYCAMORE 4 start 10:00 am
[WC] Zack Fleishman vs Sahr Timothy Kpulun (SLE)
[2] Rik de Voest (RSA) vs [WC] Alex Kim (USA)
[3] Marinko Matosevic (AUS) vs Marcin Kosakowski (USA)
Bradley Klahn (USA) vs Bruno Semenzato (BRA)
SYCAMORE 5 start 10:00 am
Daniel Kosakowski (USA) vs Karlis Lejnieks (LAT)
[1] Tatsuma Ito (JPN) vs Alex Bogdanovic (GBR)
Aaron Yovan (USA) vs Clement Reix (FRA)
Michael McClune (USA) vs [7] Greg Jones (AUS)
Qualifying Draw
ESPN2 and Tennis Channel will combine to show 15 hours of live coverage of the 2011 Farmers Classic, presented by Mercedes-Benz, as part of the Olympus US Open Series.
Tickets for 85th annual Farmers Classic presented by Mercedes-Benz are on sale now through Ticketmaster. More information can be found at www.FarmersClassic.com/Tickets or by calling (310) 824 -1010 ext. 251.