Salem Open organisers were yesterday heralding the strongest field for a Hong Kong tournament after a string of marquee names were added to next month's star-studded event. Joining the extravaganza at Victoria Park, from September 30 to October 8, will be such names as Britain's Tim Henman, big-serving Australian Mark Philippoussis, former world number one Marcelo Rios of Chile, Hong Kong crowd favourite Michael Chang and Russian sensation and this year's surprise Wimbledon semi-finalist Vladimir Voltchkov.
The event will also offer some Latin American flavour with Franco Squillari of Argentina, the world number 11, and Ecuador's Nicolas Lapentti also confirming their appearance in the tournament that has already booked the services of two-time US champion Patrick Rafter, two-time French Open and world number one Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil and German number one Nicolas Kiefer.
Other favourites including Zimbabwe's Byron Black, Slovakia's Dominik Hrbaty and Karol Kucera, Morocco's Hicham Arazi, Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman and Australia's Andrew Ilie will also take part in the tournament that boasts total prize money of US$375,000.
'We didn't expect to have so many good players,' admitted Lincoln Venancio, managing director of Salem Open Limited, organisers of the event. 'We had to have a cut-off at 66th in the world for the main draw, meaning that even the qualifying competition will be strong too. This year's event features six players from the top 20, with 11 players who are number one in their country. This is going to be a tremendous week of tennis.'
Henman, ranked 10th in the world, will be making his debut in Hong Kong. Britain's number one player comes here with a good record in 2000, having reached the finals in Rotterdam, Scottsdale and the Tennis Masters Series in Cincinnati. Squillari will also be a newcomer to Hong Kong and will be hard to beat having had a successful season in Europe this year, winning titles in Munich and Stuttgart and also reaching the semi-finals of the French Open.
Bad boy Philippoussis, who reached this year's Wimbledon quarter-finals, returns to Hong Kong after a five-year absence. Philippoussis is ranked 16th in the world and hasn't been far away from controversy, having declared himself unavailable to play in Davis Cup competition. Rios will be hoping to climb up the ATP ranking list in Hong Kong, having reached the semi-finals in Hamburg and the quarter-finals in Scottsdale, Barcelona and Gstaad this year.