Johannesburg — THE first fully fledged ATP Tour tennis tournament to be played in SA in 13 years will feature no fewer than 11 men in the top 100 of the world ATP rankings, and three in the top 20.

The tournament, to be played at the Monte Casino entertainment complex in Johannesburg from February 2-8, carries prize money of R5m.

The qualifying rounds for the tournament will be played on January 31.

Charismatic Frenchman Jo Wilfried Tsonga leads 23 players named in the list of direct entries into the draw yesterday, with 10 alternates in the event of withdrawals also named.

The remaining nine players to make up what promises to be a highly entertaining and competitive 32-strong draw will come from three wildcards and six qualifiers.

Yesterday's release from the ATP shows that Tsonga will definitely be joined by top international drawcards David Ferrer of Spain (12), Gael Monfils of France (14) and, now, Fabrice Santoro, the entertaining French player named yesterday.

Santoro is something of an old-timer on the tour -- he is 36 and has been active on the professional tour for an amazing 20 years.

His ATP ranking is 51 and his best ranking was achieved in 2001 when he reached No17 in the world.

Last year Santoro, the oldest player in year-end top 100, captured his sixth career ATP title and finished in the top 65 for a 12th year in a row and 17th time overall in his career.

In July he won his second title at the ATP Tour event in Newport, Rhode Island, to become the oldest player to win a singles crown and the only player older than 30 to accomplish the feat.

There is hardly a player around that Santoro has not beaten and he enters this year having played in 41 straight Slam events, the most among active players (the record of 56 is held by South African Wayne Ferreira).

Santoro was dubbed "The Magician" by Pete Sampras -- the US legend who holds the record for the number of Grand Slam titles won -- after losing in three sets in the third round of the Indian Wells tournament in 2002.

He got the nickname because of his ability to produce remarkable shots seldom found in any tennis coaching manual.

Last year Santoro set an open era record by appearing in his 65th career Grand Slam tournament in singles.

South African No1 Kevin Anderson has added local interest to the event by making it into the direct draw.

Ranked at 104, Anderson made it comfortably, leaving the South African Tennis Association the luxury of "spending" its wildcards on lesser-known players for the main draw.

The full list of players into the direct draw, and the top 10 alternates (country and ranking in brackets), is:

Thiago Alves, (Bra, 113); Kevin Anderson (RSA, 104); Marcos Baghdatis, (Cyp, 98); Jeremy Chardy, (Fra, 75); David Ferrer, (Esp, 12); Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, (Esp, 62); Frederico Gil, (Por, 110); Marcel Granollers, (Esp, 56); Denis Istomin, (Uzb, 105); Daniel Koellerer, (Aut, 125); Leonardo Mayer, (Arg, 115); Ivo Minar, (Cze, 99); Gael Monfils, (Fra, 14); Ivan Navarro, (Esp, 74); Bjorn Phau, (Ger, 120); Ruben Hidalgo-Ramirez (Esp, 121); Sergio Roitman (Arg, 118); Fabrice Santoro, (Fra, 52); Dudi Sela, (Isr, 112); Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, (Fra, 6); Jiri Vanek, (Cze, 124); Santiago Ventura, (Esp, 123); Kristof Vliegen, (Bel, 84)

Alternates: 1 Simon Greul (Ger, 126); 2 Flavio Cipolla (Ita, 127); 3 Stephane Bohli, (Sui, 128); 4 Benjamin Becker, (Ger, 129); 5 Michael Berrer, (Ger, 131); 6 Victor Crivoi (Rou, 133); 7 Marco Chiudinelli, (Sui, 136); 8 Ilia Bozoljac, (Srb, 139); 9 Olivier Patience, (Fra, 141); 10 Simon Stadler (Ger, 146).