Erste Bank Open: Tournament director Herwig Straka expects "four to five" top ten players
Tournament director Herwig Straka is again assuming a strong field of participants at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna this year.
by Nikolaus Fink
last edit: Sep 16, 2021, 09:12 pm
In the past few years, the Erste Bank Open in Vienna has been able to inspire time and again with a sensational starting field and Austrian tennis fans should get their money's worth again in 2021. Because, as Herwig Straka pointed out to the "Kleine Zeitung" , "we will have four to five players from the top ten with us in the town hall".
Daniil Medvedev, Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem and Roger Federer will definitely not play in Austria from the top ten. From the current perspective, there are still Novak Djokovic, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev, Andrey Rublev, Matteo Berrettini and Casper Ruud, who could start at the ATP 500 tournament.
Vienna as beneficiary of the rejections?
Regarding Djokovic's appearance again in Vienna, Straka said: "The fact that he lost in New York was definitely not to our disadvantage." Felix Auger-Aliassime and Jannik Sinner will definitely play in the Austrian capital, Carlos Alcaraz and Lorenzo Musetti are also topics.
In view of the cancellation of the Asia Swing and the tournament in Basel, which usually takes place parallel to the event in Vienna, Straka is also available to almost the entire player market outside of the top ten. There is only competition from St. Petersburg, where a 250cc event will take place from October 25th to 31st.