ATP: Stuttgart: Rudi Molleker and Yannick Maden receive wildcards

Young talent Rudi Molleker and Yannick Maden have received wildcards for the grass court tournament in Stuttgart starting on Monday. South Korean Hyeon Chung (ankle injury) and Frenchman Gael Monfils (illness), however, had to cancel their participation in the event endowed with 729,340 euros – thus the Maximilian Marterer, who recently performed strongly at the French Open, is also directly in the main field.

With Philipp Kohlschreiber, Peter Gojowczyk, Mischa Zverev, Jan-Lennard Struff, Florian Mayer as well as Marterer, Molleker and Maden, eight German aces are currently playing in the 28er main field of the ATP-Tornament in the Swabian metropolis.

The 17-year-old Molleker, one of the greatest talents of the German Tennis Association (DTB), surprisingly won the Neckar Cup in Heilbronn at the end of May. At the Challenger Tournament, the Berlin native also received a wild card – and then secured the title by beating the Czech Jiri Vesely, a savvy Top 100-Crack, in the final. “This is all unreal,” Molleker later said, “this is the best moment of my career so far.”

The date for Roger Federer’s first match is also set: The record Grand Slam champion, who missed out on the clay court season, will intervene in the Mercedes Cup on Wednesday.

Four German games are already in action in Stuttgart on Saturday in the opening round of qualifying at Weissenhof: Matthias Bachinger, who is seeded fifth, will face Belarusian Egor Gerasimov. Jan Choinski challenges the American Denis Kudla (No. 4).

Thanks to wildcards, Davis Cup players Tim Pütz and Philipp Petzschner are competing for one of the four remaining places in the main draw. Pütz meets the Slovak Lukas Lacko, Petzschner meets the Croatian Viktor Galovic.