Tennis: Vienna shines again as a crowd pleaser

“It’s been a week full of joy because for months we didn’t know if we were going to take place, weeks ago we finally knew how we could get going and restart ticket sales,” tournament president Herwig Straka said at a press conference on Sunday. . Styria was glad that the town hall had almost run out for several days and how disciplined people were while checking for coronavirus at the entrance.

“In contrast, the feeling in the hall was as comfortable as before. There were emotions that I did not expect at the beginning of the year,” said Straka. Including the globally unique project to relocate the second championship site with Heumarkt to another location, nearly 60,000 fans were welcomed. “That’s 10 percent less than it was in 2019, the best year so far. If you think 30 percent likely won’t come (unvaccinated, inexperienced, note), we may be past 2019.”

“Seldom is there such an active field for participants”

Straka was happy with an excellent field even without Dominic Thiem and the intended performances from Rafael Nadal and/or Novak Djokovic. “We rarely had such an active and enthusiastic field of participants, no player was tired, everyone wanted to win. There were very great matches, and I haven’t seen a lot of the best tennis in a week.”

City Sports Council member Peter Hacker is convinced that thanks to the “2-G” concept, there will be no further fueling of the epidemic. “There will be no major after-effects, not even from this tournament, I’m convinced of that.” Experience shows that under these rules of the game, if there are infections, the vaccinated people will only have mild symptoms and “do not stay in the hospital.” “People feel free when the people around them are adequately protected.”

The closeness to the audience, shown by Frances Tiafoe in the semi-finals on Saturday, was “highly critical” of tournament president Straka. “But the joy was greater, even if he shouldn’t have done it.” In any case, Straka has high hopes, also from an ATP point of view, that it can become almost normal in relation to the coronavirus in Australia.

The new hall maybe after 2025 only

Erdberg’s ATP 500 move to a brand new gym and concert hall will likely take longer. “The wait for the new hall has already started, but it will take longer than I heard until 2025,” Straka said. One will certainly spend the next five years in the 15th district of Vienna.

Straca did not want to express any great wishes for the field of players in 2022, he thought this year’s edition was very impressive. Nadal is an issue of course. But I’m not saying that as a matter of bleaching. I was really proud of the field this year and the way they played.”

From the organizer’s point of view, Dominic Tim “wasn’t lost, he worked great even without the theme.” “Anyway, everything is better with Dominic Thiem, and we hope he plays well again very soon.” The former manager expects Tim to return to the top ten in 2022 in the second half of the year. “Vienna may be the breakout.”