ATP Cologne: From Wednesday without a spectator - Altmaier just loses
Daniel Altmaier in singles and the Zverev brothers in doubles were eliminated in round one of the first of two ATP Tour 250 tournaments in Cologne. The tournament will take place without spectators from Wednesday.
by SID / red
last edit: Oct 13, 2020, 05:01 pm
The ATP tournament in Cologne will have to do without spectators from Wednesday. As the organizer of the tennis tournament, which was held for the first time, announced that it was responding to an order from the responsible health authorities, which stated that a maximum of 250 visitors would be allowed from Wednesday. "Thereupon the tournament officials decided to continue the sporting event without spectators for the time being," said the message. 999 spectators were allowed up to and including Tuesday.
In Cologne, the incidence, which measures the number of new corona infections per 100,000 inhabitants over the past seven days, is 66.0. From an incidence of 50, the region is considered a corona crisis area.
"In the past few weeks we have been working intensively on a professional, 59-page hygiene concept, which we recently expanded and refined. We are still firmly convinced that we would have held two safe tournaments despite the current difficult situation", said Edwin Weindorfer, the organizer's managing director: "We are sad and shocked that we have to play in front of empty stands in the arena that can hold over 20,000 spectators."
From a sporting point of view, the local heroes suffered two dampers on Tuesday: First, Alexander and Mischa Zverev lost in doubles to Oliver Marach and Raven Klaasen 6: 2, 4: 6 and 6:10. Then French Open surprise man Daniel Altmaier lost to Swiss Henri Laaksonen 6: 3, 3: 6 and 6: 7 (5). Altmaier, who came into the main field with a wildcard, caught up with your break deficit in the third set, but lost the tie-break after a 5: 4 lead and a playing time of 2:45 hours after a backhand error.