ATP: Vienna Blog #7 – Men who understand women

The ATP tournament in the Wiener Stadthalle is coming to an end – but two Austrian tennis legends are still in full use.

Jürgen Melzer is a man who understands women. Especially the sportive women in particular, which is why the Austrian legend, just after an injury on the way back to the tennis circus, quickly picked up the info about how Lindsey Vonn had cut off in the first round of the women’s giant slalom in Sölden. Rank 34, this information should not have burdened the big Jürgen on his way into the commentator’s cabin of the ORF.

It is precisely here that pleasant working conditions prevail, and the players also feel at home in Vienna’s Stadthalle, which has been filled to the last seat for days. On a court, which course builder Andi Kemmerer and his team misses every day, you never know. The pros play the balls as close to the lines as possible, every millimetre counts. A few weeks ago, Treasurer was also responsible for the pavement in Prague, the development of the black background had taken almost half a year. But then it led to a result that even the chief critic in world tennis, Brad Gilbert, was forced to show the highest respect.

Gilbert won in Vienna once, by the way, in 1986 he won the final against Karel Novacek. In a match that would have served as a model for his bestseller “Winning Ulgly”, older tennis fans will remember it. According to Gilbert, illustrious names such as Roger Federer, Tommy Haas, Pete Sampras and Goran Ivanisevic have entered their names in the winners’ list of the Stadthalle – and the organisers also honoured this with banners that had flanked the Center Court until last year.

Thomas Muster also had his own personal banner, even though the best Austrian tennis player of all times documented was never allowed to hold up the trophy in Vienna. In return, Muster is, as in recent years, something like the host of the Stadthalle, inviting you to his daily talk at the title sponsor’s stand. Last year, he also cross-examined Mikaela Shiffrin, the best skier of our time, there. This week, the 1995 Parisian champion of 1995 honoured Super-G World Champion Nicole Schmidhofer. Thomas Muster is also a man who understands women.