DELRAY BEACH, FL. – The Delray Beach Open announced its initial entry list today for the 33rd year of the ATP 250 tournament, and it’s stacked with seven former champions and finalists. Those players include two ranked in the world’s Top 15 and two US Open finalists.
They will battle for the title Feb. 7-16 at the Delray Beach Stadium & Tennis Center. The tournament is the first North American hard court event of the outdoor season, and one of just eight ATP Tour tournaments in the United States. Tickets are available at DelrayBeachOpen.com.
Two-time defending champion, top-ranked American and world No. 4 Taylor Fritz leads the player entry list followed closely by world No. 11 and last year’s finalist Tommy Paul. Joining them are 2022 winner Cameron Norrie, 2020 champion and 2022 finalist Reilly Opelka, and Kei Nishikori, who became the tournament’s youngest-ever winner in 2008 when he was 18. He returns for the first time in 11 years at age 35 and would be the event’s second-oldest champion if he hoists the trophy.
In addition, former finalists Miomir Kecmanovic (2023) and Yoshihito Nishioka (2020) will look to go one step further at this year’s event.
Fritz is aiming for a historic three-peat at the tournament. He would be the 34th man since the Open Era of professional tennis began in 1968 to win at least one specific tournament three years in a row, and the first American man born after 1990 to three-peat.
After reaching last year’s US Open final, Fritz joins Nishikori as US Open finalists in this year’s DBO field. Nishikori did it 10 years earlier in 2014, the same year he last played in Delray Beach. Both Fritz and Nishikori have reached career-high world rankings of No. 4.
The entry list features nine players age 25 or younger, four of whom have qualified for past ATP Next Gen Finals, the year-end event that highlights the best young players on tour (Brandon Nakashima, Matteo Arnaldi, Alex Michelsen, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina). Nakashima won it in 2022.
The players are currently competing in the season’s first Grand Slam in Melbourne. In the Australian Open first round, Nishikori came back from two sets and two match points down to capture his first win there in six years after missing four of the last five editions of the event. He owns the best five-set winning percentage among current men’s players at 78.4 percent with a 29-8 record, and faces Paul next who also won his first round in five sets. Michelsen, one of five Americans entered in the DBO ranked in the Top 50, upset No. 12 Stefanos Tsitsipas. Opelka secured his first Grand Slam win since 2022.
In other first-round matches in Melbourne, Fritz won in straight sets, Nishioka and Marcos Giron won in four sets, Davidovich Fokina advanced with a retirement, and Kecmanovic, Gabriel Diallo and Aleksandar Vukic each won five-set matches to advance.
Here is the 2025 Delray Beach Open singles field by the numbers so far (19 players, nine still to be added):
- 4 former Delray Beach Open champions (Taylor Fritz, 2023-24; Cameron Norrie, 2022; Reilly Opelka, 2020; Kei Nishikori, 2008)
- 4 former Delray Beach Open finalists (Tommy Paul, 2024; Miomir Kecmanovic, 2023; Reilly Opelka, 2022; Yoshihito Nishioka, 2020)
- 4 players making their Delray Beach Open main draw debut (Arthur Rinderknech, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Yunchaekete Bu, Alexander Shevchenko)
- 4 players who won ATP Tour titles in 2024 (Tommy Paul – Dallas, London/Queen’s Club, Stockholm; Taylor Fritz – Delray Beach, Eastbourne; Marcos Giron – Newport, Yoshihito Nishioka – Atlanta)
- 5 Americans ranked in Top 50 (Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Marcos Giron, Brandon Nakashima, Alex Michelsen)
- 2 players ranked in Top 15 (Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul)
- 2 US Open finalists (Taylor Fritz-2024, Kei Nishikori-2014)
- 7 former college players (Marcos Giron-UCLA, Brandon Nakashima-Virginia, Cameron Norrie-Texas Christian, Arthur Rinderknech-Texas A&M, Rinky Hijikata-North Carolina, Aleksandar Vukic-Illinois, Gabriel Diallo-Kentucky)
- 1 NCAA singles champion (Marcos Giron – 2014, UCLA)
- 9 players age 25 and under (Youngest – Alex Michelsen, 20)
- 2 players age 30 and over (Oldest – Kei Nishikori, 35)
- 12 countries represented (USA, Australia, Japan, China, Great Britain, France, Italy, Serbia, Spain, Canada, Croatia, Kazakhstan)
