Vienna’s ubercool tennis experience!

Article posted by Coliseum, October 6^th, 2021

Image: Tennis2Go

The organizers of the ATP 500 tournament in Vienna (capital of Austria) are raring to go with their novel Tennis2Go event – which offers world-class tennis in the middle of the City on the grounds of the Vienna Ice Skating Club at Heumarkt (Austria). The financial services company Erste Bank is the main sponsor of the event for the 11^th time.

The ‘Sports Business.at’ stated that the Austrian tennis player Dominic Thiem will not be available for the Erste Bank Open this year. However, the organizers have managed to bring the cream of tennis players to Vienna: Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Matteo Berrettini, and Casper Ruud are some of the players who will show their prowess at the Wiener Stadthalle from October 23^rd to October 31^st, 2021.

The Erste Bank Open is a professional tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. Originally an event of the Grand Prix tennis circuit, it is currently part of the ATP World Tour 500 series of the Association of Tennis Professionals World Tour.

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The 16,000-capacity Wiener Stadthalle is a multipurpose indoor arena and convention center located in the 15^th district of Vienna, Austria. Austrian architect Roland Rainer designed the original halls which were constructed between 1953 and 1958.

The ‘Sports Business.at’ further stated that the innovative offering is that for the first time there will be a City court – on the grounds of the Vienna Ice Skating Club, which was home to beach volleyball players in the summer.

The Tournament Director of the ATP 500 event in Vienna, Herwig Straka, stated, “We want to make tennis a new experience for fans and have, therefore, come up with this novel idea to hold the event in the ice skating club. Therefore, the second match court is being set up in a tent at the Vienna Ice Skating Club -something never seen before in an ATP tournament.”

For a song

The concept of Tennis 2 Go is also completely new: Two hours of tennis can be savored for just 10 euros.

As Straka put in, “At 10 o’clock or during the lunch break, after office hours or with friends just in between – action is guaranteed all day long with Tennis 2 Go. Tickets for Tennis 2 Go are available on site. Another new feature of this concept is that the duration of how long one wants to be in the middle of the tennis action depends on the individual. If one wants to stay for more than two hours, one will have to pay extra. The court at the Vienna Ice Skating Club on Heumarkt will have space for more than 1,000 spectators. The Tennis 2 Go area will be ‘garnished’ with food trucks, shopping opportunities and entertainment galore.”

Emphasized Michael Tojner, Majority Owner and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of VARTA AG, “As a passionate tennis player, I am delighted that the Erste Bank Open is taking place at Heumarkt for the first time. The major event shows what potential this space holds and how we want to use and position it in the future. Our vision is to focus not only on sport, art, culture, but also on hospitality. We want this extraordinary place in the middle of the City to bristle with life. Tennis 2 Go is an excellent concept for promoting athletic talents in children and the young crowd. A goal that also applies to our commitment at VARTA.”

VARTA AG is a German company manufacturing batteries for global automotive, industrial and consumer markets.

Erste Bank Open

Austria’s biggest and most important tennis tournament is taking place this year for the 11th time with Erste Bank as the main and title sponsor and for the 7^th time as a tournament in the ATP 500 series. It is one of the most highly endowed tournaments in Europe. The showpiece event was held with strict COVID-19 restrictions in place last year, but this year tennis buffs can look forward to an event to be held in its pristine glory.

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