DALLAS – The USTA has announced the 22 direct entries for the main draw of the 19th annual $125,000 RBC Tennis Championships of Dallas, hosted indoors at TBarM Racquet Club on January 30 – February 4th, 2017.

The list includes both veterans as well as some of the United States most talented young stars, including Americans Frances Tiafoe, Taylor Fritz and Michael Mmoh.

The youngest of the trio, 18-year-old Tiafoe had arguably the best year in 2016. The American reached five Challenger level singles finals, winning two of them. He also was responsible for knocking off the top-seeded Samuel Groth in last year’s Dallas event before falling in the quarterfinals.

Fritz followed up an impressive 2015 campaign with a strong 2016 in which he captured a singles title to start the year at Happy Valley, Australia followed by a finals appearance against Kei Nishikori at the ATP 250 in Memphis, Tenn.

For Mmoh, he began last year with impressive play in Futures events which then lead to even better results at the Challenger level as he reached the finals at Tiburon, Calif., made the semifinals in Stockton, Calif., and then won his first career Challenger title at Knoxville, Tenn.

Olympic silver medalist Rajeev Ram will also be making his return to Dallas. Ram, who teamed up to medal in mixed doubles with fellow American Venus Williams at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will be making a record 12th appearance at the RBC Tennis Championships of Dallas. He is also the most successful at the event, reaching the finals in doubles three times and winning twice as well as reaching the singles final in 2015 where he fell to Tim Smyczek – another American who will be returning for the 2017 event.

Additional players of note include Japan Olympians Taro Daniel and Yuichi Sugita as well as world-ranked No. 97 Mikhail Kukushkin.

For tournament information, please contact Shawn Edwards at 972-385-3609 or sedwards@tbarmtennis.com. Tournament website: www.tennischampionshipsofdallas.com