ATP Cologne II: Zverev before another duel with Verdasco - even week two without a spectator
It's halftime at the two-week tennis event in Cologne. While the bett1HULKS Indoors is still in the final weekend, the draw for the main draw for the subsequent bett1HULKS Championship was held on Saturday. A novelty in the history of the ATP tour. Never before have two international professional tournaments at this level taken place in two consecutive weeks at the same venue.
by Florian Heer
last edit: Oct 18, 2020, 08:27 am
From Florian Heer from Cologne
However, the organizers had to accept a downer. Also in the second week the matches will be held due to the unchanged high incidence value in the cathedral citybe held in front of empty stands in the Lanxess Arena. “It's bitter without fans, but we want to organize a safe event,” said organizer Edwin Weindorfer and announced that all 10,000 tickets sold will be refunded.
Organizers are combative
However, the managing director of the Austrian e-motion group, organizer of several international tennis events, is combative even in times of the pandemic. “We won't let ourselves get down. The event industry is ailing. We have to look for solutions with politics. But now it's time to keep your head up and pull through. "
It is still important to be flexible and not to include money for ticketing in the calculation. “It remains exciting,” says Weindorfer, who is particularly keen on innovative concepts. Above all, the already mentioned "back-to-back solution", but also having a live band appear during the change of sides, should minimize the "ghost game character", as he himself describes it. Indeed, the outstanding Berlin musicians with the stage name "The Swag" enrich the event.
Top stars deliver
In terms of sport, it's going as hoped. With local hero Alexander Zverev, the Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut and the young Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, the three top seeded players reached the semi-finals of the first week. The trio will also start at the second event and will even be enriched by two more stars thanks to number 8 in the world rankings, Diego Schwartzman from Argentina, and Denis Shapovalov from Canada.
Zverev will start another title hunt at the bett1HULKS Championship after a bye in the first round to the winner of the game between Fernando Verdasco and John Millman from Australia. The Spanish veteran was already the opening opponent in week one.
Struff motivates for week two
For Jan-Lennard Struff, after an early first round loss against the Cologne qualifier Oscar Otte, it means to return to the road to success. “I was nervous to play in front of my home crowd,” revealed the current number two in German men's tennis. In his match at the start on Monday, up to 999 spectators were allowed to take part in the event in the almost 20,000-seat arena.
“Now I have the chance to make something good in the same place. This is very rare in tennis. My motivation is still great because we have only played a few tournaments so far this season, ”said Struff and will face the Italian Marco Cecchinato in the first round. He is still at the clay court tournament in Sardinia, where he will face the Serbian Laslo Djere in the final on Sunday. Definitely not a disadvantage for the German.