Next week, the Koza World of Sports facility, promoted as the largest tennis academy in the world, hosts the inaugural TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open.
The first ATP World Tour event in Turkey boasts Roger Federer as its top seed, with World No. 11 Grigor Dimitrov seeded second. Federer will face either home hope Marsel Ilhan or Finnish veteran Jarkko Nieminen in his opening match. Ilhan, an Istanbul resident, is the highest-ranked Turkish player.
"First I will have to pass the first round," said Ilhan. "My Finnish competitor is a very experienced player. I hope I will get to play Federer if I pass the first round. I had played Wawrinka and Djokovic before, now its Federer."
Dimitrov, meanwhile, squares off against the winner of the first round clash between Andrey Golubev and Nikoloz Basilashvili. Other seeds in the draw include fellow Top 50 talents Pablo Cuevas, Santiago Giraldo and Andreas Haider-Maurer. Russia's Andrey Rublev, the youngest player in the Top 400 of the Emirates ATP Rankings, was awarded a main draw wild card. The 17 year old earned his biggest win in upsetting Fernando Verdasco at this week's Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell.
“I got a little bit of a tour around the area and it looks amazing,” Dimitrov said. “To have that kind of facility and to have the opportunity to build something like that is pretty amazing.”
The centre court at the Koza World of Sports features a retractable roof and provides seating for 7,500 people, with two other clay show courts raising available seating to 9,500. Main draw action commences on Monday.
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