24. Vegeta Croatia Open in Umag, the oldest and most reputable ATP tournament in Croatian and the region, has begun with the Istria Gourmet Festival program. Tennis players will be entering the courts of Stella Maris tomorrow, when the qualifiers for the main tournament begin.

Five players from the TOP 30 will be attending the 24. Vegeta Croatia Open. Richard Gasquet, ranked ninth in the world, arrives with great expectations and is looking forward to playing in Umag for the first time in his career. Tournament winner from 2011. Alexandr Dolgopolov, is a favorite of Umag's crowd and Vegeta Croatia Open is one of his favorite tournaments. Dolgopolov has already arrived in Umag. Umag's tournament could be an important step for the former TOP 10 tennis player, Gaël Monfils from France. Fabio Fognini from Italy and Carlos Berlocq arrive to the tournament in great shape and full of confidence, after winning their first ATP career titles, both on clay courts. There are also Italy's best tennis player Andreas Seppi, Tommy Robredo from Spain, as well as Viktor Troicki, Umag's semifinalist from 2007 and member of the Serbian national team that won the Davis Cup in 2010. Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, tournament winner from 2008 is returning to Umag. With such an impressive player roster, Umag truly promises exciting tennis and entertaining matches.

Unfortunately, due to a difficult knee injury, the best Croatian tennis player and last year's winner of Vegeta Croatia Open, Marin Čilić canceled his attendance in Umag. Čilić started to experience knee problems in April in Monte Carlo, he also resigned in the second round of this year's Wimbledon due to the injury. Yesterday, at the ATP tournament in Hamburg, one of the best polish players Jerzy Janowicz suffered an injury, thus cancelling his debut in Umag. Janowicz felt pain in his right hand during the second set of the eight finals match of Hamburg's ATP tournament, causing him to forfeit the match against Fernando Verdasco from Spain. 

Invitations to the 24. Vegeta Croatia open have been handed out to the young tennis hopefuls Mate Pavić and Borna Ćorić. The tournament director Vanja Božičković decided to award the third invitation to the young Czech tennis player Jiři Vesely.

Ten days of excellent tennis, gastronomy and entertainment

Thousands of visitors will be able to enjoy exciting tennis matches, eno-gastronomic manifestations and an abundant musical program all the way through to 28. July. After the official opening on Saturday, Istria Gorurmet Festival will last until the end of the tournament, Sunday, 28. July. The festival is made up of four elements: show cooking dinner named "Istria gourmet restaurant by San Rocco", the zone Naša kužina, which presents some of the best local taverns, sales-promotional point of Vinistra with 28 wine sorts, and a review of selected Istrian specialties named Taste Istria, which is held for the first time this year. Added content is comprised of wine tastings "Hidden charms of Istrian wines", in collaboration with Vinistra and Croatian Sommelier club.

The entertainment part of the program includes over 100 hours of music, whose stars are Tony Cetinski, globally known British singer Gabriell and DJ Thomas Gold from Berlin. ATP Unplugged nights are a novelty which include performances by Croatian music stars like Urban, Franka Batelić and hip hop group Elemental. Admission to all ATP Party Nights events is free for all visitors and Umag's citizens.