ATP Vienna: Ball children with fishing nets, anticipation of Dominic Thiem

The ATP World Tour 500 tournament in Vienna started on Saturday with the qualification tournament. The anticipation is great – even though Dominic Thiem was given a difficult opening task by lot.

By Jens Huiber from the Wiener Stadthalle

At least one thing has to be left to the Viennese: There would have been good reasons to spend the afternoon outside the Stadthalle in late summer conditions, which should turn into autumnal circumstances in the coming days. The grandstands on the first day of qualifying for the ATP World Tour 500 tournament were still very full, but no wonder, as there were three matches with domestic participation.

The usual standards in Vienna are, of course, already intact two days before the start of main field operations. There is above all the beautiful tradition that the ball children do not catch the balls by hand, but with rackets. whose covering is replaced by an airy net. Older sports fans will remember that this was also the case in those years when the event in Vienna was still known as the “Fischer Cup”.

In the meantime, it has also become an integral part of the experimental set-up at Austria’s largest tennis tournament: the training tent in front of the entrance to the Stadthalle, a must for the Viennese after advancing to the 500cc category. Square builder Andreas Kemmerer has also done a lot of work, the surface should play “medium fast”.

If this is to your advantage, you will see in the days to come that the ball abrasion and dirt will continuously increase the speed of the courts. If the game were to be played until Christmas, the conditions would probably be the same as in Wimbledon in 1985. However, the coming Sunday has been scheduled as the final day, and the Stadthalle will not only be open to sport. If you like it: Manfred Mann´s Earth Band is expected on November 9th.

Dominic Thiem should already be training on the Center Court in London’s O2 Arena. This is the big subplot of the event in Vienna: Trio Thiem, John Isner and Kei Nishikori will probably be awarded two places for the season finale, the draw has brought interesting tasks for all three. Especially for the local hero, who, like last year, can compete with Richard Gasquet.

Dominic Thiem hasn’t really loved the Frenchman yet, in 2015 Gasquet was the winner in Basel as well as in the Stadthalle a year ago. But there are still a few days until the revenge, the Lichtenwörther will only intervene on Tuesday. At the latest then, however, the Viennese really have no reason to spend the day outside the Stadthalle.

Here the single tableau in Vienna