John Isner (ATP 10) had to cancel playing at the 26th GERRY WEBER OPEN. The 33-year old American is suffering from an injury in his right knee, which makes a participation in Germany's largest ATP-lawn event impossible. "I am very dissapointed to not being able to start in Halle. I was looking forward to playing here for the first time very much", Isner said. "I now hope to be able to play the Gerry Weber Open next year.“
Isner, who is thought to be one of the most powerful servers in world tennis, had only decided in favour of Halle against other tournaments a couple of weeks ago, Tournament director Ralf Weber stated: "I am sorry that this injury makes John's participation impossible. But of course his recovery goes first.“ ATP NextGen-Champion Hyeon Chung from South Korea (ATP 20) and Russian junior-star Andrey Rublev (ATP 31) also had to cancel playing the ATP-competition in HalleWestfalen. Chung is still suffering from an ancle injury, which has forced him to cancel a number of tournaments in the last couple of weeks, amoungst them the French Open. The ATP stated that Rublev cannot start in HalleWestfalen due to a back injury.
Super talented Rudolf "Rudi" Molleker (ATP 303) receives Struff's Wild Card. The 17 year old from Oranienburg had his first spectacular moment in his career as Champion of the ATP-Challengers in Heilbronn. "Rudi Molleker is one of the biggest junior hopes in German tennis. With the Wild Card we honor his strong performances of the last months", Tournament director Ralf Weber said, "we have always given young players, especially from Germany, a plattform to gather important experiences.“
