PRESS RELEASE

Strong competition for Zverev and Murray: Wawrinka, Shapovalov and Schwartzman also commit to the bett1HULKS Championship!

Cologne’s mayor Henriette Reker will act as patron for the Cologne back-to-back tournaments!

Cologne, 23rd September 2020. – Cologne’s back-to-back tournaments are getting better with each day! While the players roster for the bett1HULKS Indoors from 10-18 October 2020 in Cologne’s LANXESS arena is already peppered with top stars, the roster for the bett1HULKS Championship from 18-25 October 2020 will have fans’ heads turned even more. The second tournament will not only see Germany’s number 1, Alexander Zverev, three-times Grand Slam winner Andy Murray (GBR), French fan-favorite Gael Monfils and US Open champion 2014 Marin Cilic (CRO) – who have all committed for both tournaments in Cologne – but also Denis Shapovalov, Diego Schwartzman and Stan Wawrinka.

The 35-year old Wawrinka is the third player of the bett1HULKS Championship with at least one Grand Slam title under his belt. 2014, the Swiss triumphed at the Australian Open, 2015 at the French Open and 2016 at the US Open. Denis Shapovalov has recently reached the quarter final of the US Open and the semifinal of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Rome, thus cracking the ATP top 10 for the first time in his career. Diego Schwartzman also had a great run in Italy, beating Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinal at Rome’s “Foro Italico” on his favorite surface, clay. The Argentinian with the big heart only had to bow to Novak Djokovic, the world’s number 1 in two sets.

“While the roster for the bett1HULKS Indoors had already been great, we were able to top that with the bett1HULKS Championship. I’m happy that US Open finalist Alexander Zverev will be the top-seeded player at both events and that Germany’s number 2, Jan-Lennard Struff, will also play both tournaments. Zverev, Struff, Murray, Wawrinka, Cilic in combination with Shapovalov and Schwartzman who both played at their top level in Rome, as well as several other very interesting players make for an incredible and exciting tournament”, says tournament director Barbara Rittner.

“We’ve already been happy with a cut off of 65 for the first tournament, but now it’s necessary to be at least no. 47 in the world to get directly into the main draw for the second part of our back-to-back event. This is a guarantee of two weeks of world-class tennis at the bett1HULKS tournaments. The young tennis generation with Alexander Zverev, Denis Shapovalov or the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime will clash with veterans like Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka or Gael Monfils in Cologne. So we have something for everyone”, stresses Edwin Weindorfer, CEO of the organizing e|motion group.

Cologne’s Mayor Henriette Reker will take over the patronage for the ATP events. “I am very happy to welcome the ATP in Cologne and gladly support the bett1HULKS as patron. It has been a great decision to hold two tournaments from 10-25 October here in Cologne. The LANXESS arena and the sport-city Cologne have once again managed to bring a high caliber sports event to Cologne. Due to the Corona pandemic it has been of the utmost importance to offer the sport a secure setting in which these tournaments can be held. We are excited to see international top tennis stars who we are happy to welcome”, says Henriette Reker about the “Cologne back-to-back” happily.

The RheinEnergieAG, a nationwide energy provider with headquarters in Cologne, decided to become a sponsor of the events. “We are happy for the sports-crazy Cologne that there will be two ATP tournaments in the LANXESS arena. As there are nearly no public events right now we are more than happy to contribute so that sport and the equally hurting event industry may send out a vital sign to the world from Cologne”, says Dieter Steinkamp, CEO RheinEnergie AG.