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Sports

Farmers Classic Starts Monday at UCLA

The tennis event features a 28-player singles draw and 16 doubles teams.

Many of the world's top tennis players will be in Westwood this week to compete in the Farmers Classic at UCLA.

Celebrating its 85th year, the ATP tournament is the longest running annual sporting event in Los Angeles and this year's 28-player singles draw will feature such well-known names as Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina, Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil and Mardy Fish, the highest-ranked American player at No 9.

Fish is the top seed, followed by 2008 winner Del Potro, Baghdatis and Bellucci, all of whom have byes in the first round. Fish won two titles and made four finals last year and is 18-11 with three semifinal appearances so far this year. In April, he moved ahead of Andy Roddick as the top U.S. player.

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"Mardy's enjoying a great resurgence in his career, and we are going to enjoy having him back at the Farmers Classic," tournament director Jack Kramer said.    

The singles draw also includes Americans Steve Johnson (the 2011 NCAA champion from USC), Alex Bogomolov, Michael Russell, Ryan Sweeting and James Blake. UCLA's Clay Thompson, Daniel Kosakowski and incoming freshman Marcos Giron are all playing for qualifying spots.

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International stars include Xavier Malisse of Belgium, Igor Kunitsyn and Dmitry Tursunov of Russia, Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, Benjamin Becker, Tommy Hass and Michael Berrer of Germany, Somdev Devvarman of India, Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, Alejandro Falla of Colombia, Ernests Gulbis of Latvia and Yen Hsun-Lu of Taiwan. 

Qualifying rounds took place Sunday at the Sycamore Courts and the final will be Monday on the Grandstand Court at Straus Stadium. The main draw runs Monday through Sunday, July 31, and the prize money will be over $1 million.

Sam Querrey, the 2009 and 2010 winner, is still recovering from elbow surgery in June and will not play this year's tournament. He had hoped to join Hall-of-Famers Fred Perry (1932-34) and Don Budge (1935-37) as the only men to win the title three consecutive times.

The tournament also features a 16-team doubles draw, where twins Bob and Mike Bryan of nearby Camarillo are the defending champions. 

To purchase tickets, call 310-824-1010, ext. 251.

Click here to view the singles draw for this year's tournament.

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