ATP: Exciting look behind the scenes on Rado Day

On Thursday the Rado-Day took place in the Wiener Stadthalle. I was able to visit the tournament one day for Tennisnet. Besides many exciting tennis matches, I was also allowed to take a look behind the scenes and meet some very prominent tennis players.Matthäus Helbich reports from the Vienna Stadthalle

Round of 16 day with many stars like Thiem, Nishikori, Khachanov Monfils & Isner. Actually, the day with these games alone would be perfect enough, but I was taught a better lesson.

12:30: Admission for the visitors of the fourth tournament day in the Vienna Stadthalle. The first match was between Kei Nishikori and the young Moscow winner Karen Khachanov. The game started at 13:00, in the meantime I was allowed to take a seat in the Rado VIP Lounge and let myself be spoiled by a huge buffet.

While I felt like a real celebrity in the Rado VIP Lounge, the anticipation for the day grew more and more. Then it was time, the first game of the day began. I was very satisfied with my place, it was exactly opposite the referee’s chair. But the game was a bit disappointing.

I think the already very well filled hall expected a real exchange of blows. In the end, Nishikori swept his opponent after one hour and four minutes with 6:2 and 6:2 from the field. Especially interesting for me were the emotions of the players.

The players really show a lot of emotional outbursts and look for eye contact with their box even after messed up rallies. You never notice these little details on TV, but they are so striking and really interesting to watch for true fans.

Since it was Rado-Day, a video was shown after the game in the break of the Rado Pro Am tournament – of which I was allowed to report last Sunday. At the entrance to the Rado stand, visitors could have their serve speed measured. For those who had a Rado watch and came to the Rado Store in Vienna, free tickets were also given away the week before.

So one of the main sponsors of the tournament was present everywhere on this day and therefore certainly managed to anchor himself positively in the minds of the visitors.

The game afterwards was Kyle Edmund against Fernando Verdasco. Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite watch the game because I took part in a backstage tour during the third set. The very lucrative Players Lounge was on display.

These premises, where the players stay to prepare for their matches, are normally not accessible to visitors or journalists. There the players can be in the circle of their families and friends and can pass the time with card games or table tennis. I discovered Borna Coric, the Croatian Shanghai finalist, sleeping on a couch.

Otherwise the whole Thiem- clan was present, Sam Querrey or Kei Nishikori, who still had energy after his victory and played table tennis. Very interesting impressions in any case, which I will certainly not forget. Furthermore, we were allowed to see the line judges, the ball children and the physiotherapists.

At the end of the tour we went back to the Rado VIP Lounge, where we had a Meet & Greet with Thomas Muster, Mike Bryan and Dennis Novak. After the three had told a little bit about themselves, there were photos and autographs. All three signed for me on a tennis ball, which will be in my office in the future.

Then it finally happened. The main part of the day was coming up: Dominic Thiem vs. Sam Querrey. The atmosphere was overwhelming. The hall trembled and of course over 8000 visitors only stopped at Dominic Thiem. I keep wondering how this guy deals with this pressure.

At every rally, everyone cheers, suffers and rejoices with him. Probably the 8,000 people at a break point are more nervous than he is. I must honestly say that the appearance of Dominic Thiem impresses me every year. Even though he has not been successful in Vienna over the past few years, his mental abilities deserve high credit.

Back to the game: Thiem acted highly concentrated and played especially at the return big. Querrey’s hard serves bounced off the Lichtenwörther and with one break each in both sets, the seventh-placed player of the world rankings won the match 6-4 and 6-4.

At the end of the day there was a match between Gael Monfils, the darling of the audience, and John Isner. Monfils put people in raptures with his great strokes, but also with his typically funny and likeable appearance. The 2.08-meter serve giant John Isner could not oppose this and lost the match with 4:6 and 4:6.

In summary, this day was definitely a dream for me. In addition to great games, a very interesting backstage tour with subsequent Meet & Greet and access to the very special Rado VIP Lounge, Thiem also won his round of 16. It was a perfect day, made possible for me by Rado and Tennisnet. Hopefully in the future I will get another chance to spend such a great day in the Vienna Stadthalle.