Exhibition fights: Dustin Brown is the beginning
From Friday there will be a tennis tournament in Höhr-Grenzhausen. The top players are the Germans Yannick Hanfmann and Dustin Brown . The tennis channel even broadcasts live.
by SID
last edit: Apr 29, 2020, 11:55 am
It's been quite a while since Yannick Hanfmann was able to pursue his profession. At the end of February, the Karlsruhe player, currently number 143 in the world tennis rankings, lost to Austrian Dennis Novak in the second round of qualification for the ATP tournament in Dubai, after all he received $ 9,810 for this. Since then he has lived on his savings. Like so many of his colleagues. And that will remain so for a while because of the corona crisis. No tournament will take place worldwide until July 13th. Although - that's not entirely true.
"I'm really looking forward to it," says Hanfmann in an interview with SID - looking forward to what awaits him on Friday. Then a three-part "Exhibition Series" begins in Höhr-Grenzhausen, a small town with 10,000 inhabitants in the Westerwald. The game is played in the local base tennis academy, because of Corona only the two players and a referee are allowed on the (ashes) court. Hanfmann meets Dustin Brown (Winsen / Aller, 239th in the ATP ranking) and another six opponents, everyone playing against everyone, then there are play-offs.
Sounds a bit like Klein-Kleckersdorf. In fact, however, Brown, Hanfmann, Jan Choinski (332nd in the world rankings) or Johannes Härteis (342nd) are of great interest: The "Tennis Channel", to be received in more than 62 million households in the USA alone, will run from Friday to Monday broadcast live. Nothing else happens. The places in the academy are equipped with cameras anyway, and their images are streamed - worldwide, which Hanfmann finds "pretty cool". "I'm curious to see how many are watching."
Hanfmann not for player funds
When asked a month ago whether he wanted to participate, Hanfmann spontaneously agreed. For the first few weeks after the beginning of the corona crisis he was able to "enjoy" with the parents in Karlsruhe, the girlfriend was there, the sister, he was finally there for a long time with the people, "whom I don't usually do so often so long in a row ". But now "I miss the tingling, the competition", so the "Exhibition Series" suits him. He hopes to be part 2 (from May 7th) and 3 (from May 14th).
In Höhr-Grenzhausen it will only be about a few hundred euros for the players. Hanfmann has free board and lodging as a foreigner. He is still making ends meet without any income. He has "built up a few reserves out of the $ 543,000 that he made in his career, and I am also not one who wipes out the money". But he also has running costs like the apartment on the tennis base near Munich. "If nothing happened in the next few months, I would probably think that things are getting tight now," he admits.
Hanfmann, of course, thinks of the idea of superstars Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer that the top 100 in the world rankings should pay money into a fund in order to support players from places 250 to 700 in the world rankings with $ 10,000 each little. "Why should the players in the top ten be responsible for making others feel better?"