The German is coming to Portorož as the winner of the Halle Open tournament in Germany in June, and has another ATP Tour win under his belt, coming in September 2011 at the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy in Romania.

Bets Slovenians Grega Žemlja, Blaž Rola and Blaž Kavčič are also coming to the tournament in their native country in good shape, with all three achieving good results at tournaments of a similar scale in the past weeks.

Worth EUR 42,500, the 4th ATP Challenger Tilia Slovenia Open will conclude on 13 August. So far all final matches at the tournament featured a Slovenian player, with Žemlja winning in 2013 and Kavčič in 2014.

Žemlja, who was also the finalist last year, will be the highest-seeded Slovenian player; he currently sits at the 142nd place in the ATP rankings.

Another six Slovenians will take part in the tournament, but will have to make their way to the big stage through qualifiers.