Argentines’ withdrawal hands Ernests Toronto spot

- David Nalbandian and Juan Monaco’s last-minute withdrawal from the Rogers Cup has seen a main draw slot open up for Ernests. Their decision comes on the eve of the tournament’s start next Monday. Ernests initially signed up to play qualifying here. However, the ATP rules dictated that main draw withdrawals prior to the start of qualifying are to be replaced by players from a pre-determined list of alternates.

The alternates are ordered according to the players’ ATP ranking as at the tournament’s sign-up deadline. They generally comprise of players whose ranking fell just several spots below the main draw cut-off.

For example, the lowest-ranked player initially accepted into this year’s Rogers Cup main draw is Mario Ancic, whose rank was #44 as at June 9th. Ernests was ranked #51 in that week.

The main draw will be made on Saturday, July 19th, at 2pm local time. Ernests is defending 20 points in this event.

~ by Zahirah on July 18, 2008.