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.
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...