Wild card Enqvist aiming for fourth Stockholm Open title
Fri 17 October, 2003 12:02 BST
By Peter Starck
STOCKHOLM, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Thomas Enqvist received the last Stockholm Open wild card on Friday and has targeted a fourth title at the indoor hardcourt event in the city of his birth.
The 29-year-old, once fourth in the world, is keen to end a three-year title drought and prove that he has fully recovered from the shoulder injury which caused him to slide out of the top 100 in the rankings this year.
"I have finally started to find the level of my game that I know I can achieve at," Enqvist said "I will do everything I can to try and win my fourth Stockholm Open title."
Enqvist, who can take his career winnings over the $10 million mark if he reaches the semi-finals next week, won in Stockholm in 1995, 1996 and 1999.
The Swede has won 19 ATP singles titles since he turned professional in 1992, but his last triumph came back in 2000 at Long Island.
This year he has reached the last 16 three times -- in Milan in January, Scottsdale in March and in Lyon earlier this month -- and is now 146th in the ATP entry rankings.
The 2002 Stockholm Open winner and world number 11 Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand will be the number one seed this year ahead of Dutchman Sjeng Schalken, the 2001 winner here.
Following his third round win over world number two Andy Roddick of the United States at the Madrid Masters on Thursday, big-hitting Chilean Nicolas Massu is perhaps the hottest name entered for Stockholm Open.
Finn Jarkko Nieminen, who announced his arrival onto the world stage here two years ago when he beat Enqvist in the semi-finals and took Schalken to five sets in the final, returns to Stockholm in pursuit of his first title.
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