Newlywed Butorac Back In Action With Rojer

© Paige BoncherButorac & Suydam tied the knot in Newport.

Eric Butorac is seeded second this week with partner Jean-Julien Rojer at the Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur 2011, and it’s a special tournament for the Minnesota native. The American is competing for the first time as a newlywed, having married Maggie Suydam in Newport, Rhode Island on 17 September. “It has been a whirlwind summer between the US Open, getting married and now being back on tour,” says Butorac.

After proposing to Suydam in Paris last October, the couple were made to work around their schedules to find the perfect date for the occasion. The two viable options were 16 July and 17 September and they selected the latter as it was just a week after the US Open.

The festivities began with a tennis-themed party at the International Tennis Hall Of Fame, which allowed guests to play tennis on the grass courts that host the Campbell’s Hall Of Fame Tennis Championships, an ATP World Tour 250 event. The lawn gathering was followed by the rehearsal dinner and an after party featuring live music.

On Saturday, Butorac and Sudyam tied the knot at the historic Chanler at Cliff Walk in front of 175 guests around 5:30 pm. Butorac’s younger brother Jeff served as the best man and Sudyam’s best friend from college, Meg Zebroski, was the maid of honor. Fellow ATP World Tour doubles champion Scott Lipsky was one of Butorac’s groomsmen.

Following the ceremony, the couple, friends and family celebrated with a cocktail hour, formal dinner and a wedding requirement… dancing! The weekend ended with brunch on Sunday, and then the newlyweds headed off to Napa Valley for a few days of relaxation before flying to Kuala Lumpur. “It was the perfect weekend,” states Butorac. “We had great weather and got to spend a lot of time with all of our family and friends.”

Butorac has enjoyed his best season to date, reaching a career-high doubles ranking of 17 on 29 August. He and Rojer started the year with a bang, advancing to their first major semi-final at the Australian Open and finishing runner-up at the ATP World Tour 500 event in Memphis.

With their strong push in the first half of the season, highlighted by clay-court titles at Estoril and Nice, Butorac and Rojer are in contention to qualify for their first Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, sitting in ninth place. A title in Kuala Lumpur this week would see the two overtake Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski for the all-important eighth position in the 2011 ATP Doubles Team Rankings. The top eight teams qualify for the season-ending event at the O2 arena in London.