Bulgarian tennis players received a big incentive on the eve of the Sofia Open scheduled from November 4 to 11.
Regarding the singles main draw, Dimitar Kuzmanov and Alexander Lazarov, Davis Cup players, received a wild card for the main draw of their home ATP 250 tournament. Regarding the doubles main draw, one of the wild cards will go to the pair of Alexander Lazarov/Alexander Donski,the heroes of the latest Davis Cup match against Kazakhstan, the other one going to the doubles of Yanaki Milev/Pyotr Nesterov. As for the qualification in singles, Yanaki Milev earned the wild card.
Valentin Dimov, captain of Bulgaria’s Davis Cup team explained the decision of the selection process.
“We discussed with the tournament director Orlin Stanoytchev which players should receive a wild card and I, as the captain of the Davis Cup team, prioritize those who are ready to play for Bulgaria every time,” and he added: “I think they’re in pretty good shape and they deserve it, both in singles and in doubles.”
Dimitar Kuzmanov is the only tennis player to have participated in all editions of the Sofia Open. His biggest (and only one) victory at Sofia Open is connected to this tournament as he defeated Lorenzo Musetti in 2021. Miko also holds the record for victories (24) in singles for Bulgaria in the Davis Cup.
Last year, Alexander Lazarov reached the round of 16 after defeating the NextGen finalist Jiri Lehecka, and then he was two points away from the victory against Lorenzo Musetti. This May, Alex tore his Achilles, however only four months later he was on the court for Bulgaria against Kazakhstan.
Yanaki Milev has progressed by nearly 700 places in the world rankings in the last 12 months. The Plovdiv resident is currently #494, after being 1177th in November 2022. This year Yanaki won two ITF tournament titles and played two more finals.
