VIENNA, September 15, 2015
Seven top 20-players will headline this year’s Erste Bank Open 500 in Vienna, taking place from October 17 to 25. The tournament, which has been upgraded to the ATP 500-series, will provide a total prize purse of € 2,324,000. The winner will receive € 423,000 as well as 500 ranking points.
The current entry list is led by world number 8 David Ferrer, who finished runner-up last year, losing an exciting final to Andy Murray in three sets. “I have good memories of the tournament, although I couldn’t capture the title last year. It is defenitely a goal for me to win in Vienna,” the 33-year-old Spaniard will arrive in Austria highly motivated. Ferrer took 24 ATP titles in his career, three of them in 2015 – in Doha, Rio de Janeiro and Acapulco.
With current world number 9 Milos Raonic, another top 10-player will come to Vienna. It will be the first appearance in Austria’s capital for the 24-year-old Canadian. With South-African Kevin Anderson, US-boy John Isner and Croatian Ivo Karlovic the entry list also includes a couple of the big servers on the ATP World Tour. Anderson knocked out Andy Murray at this year’s US-Open and is currently ranked on 12th position. Karlovic fired 45 aces in his encounter against Tomas Berdych in Halle in June. The 36-year-old has already hit more than 10,000 service winners in his career.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga eyes on winning his second Vienna trophy. The Frenchman claimed the title in 2011. “I really like the city and the organization is perfect. That the event has now become part of the 500-series, makes it even more attractive,” the 30-year-old is looking forward to coming back.
Thomas Muster, Dominic Thiem, Mag. Herwig Straka, Dr. Peter Bosek, Dr. Kurt Gollowitzer und Dr. Ralph Müller, Erste Bank Open 500 (photo: Bildagentur Zolles KG/Martin Steiger)
Austrian’s number one Dominic Thiem is the seventh top 20-player and could be among the top eight seeds, as this is currently the case for Gael Monfils. “It will be very difficult this year. The draw is really strong and even for the seeded players it will be tough right from the first round. There will be no easy matches. I expect a lot of close encounters,” tournament director Herwig Straka told and added the possibility of another top-player joining the list. “There is still the chance, that another top 10 player would like to play here at short notice. We had this case last year with Andy Murray and David Ferrer, who had decided to come to Vienna only one day before the tournament started.”
Dominic Thiem feverishly awaits his appearance in front of his home crowd. “In Austria you want to play exceptionally well. At this year’s edition, you have to be fully concentrated right from the first rally. Vienna has always been very popular among the players. The tournament’s upgrade led to an additional incentive. Players from the top 30 will not be seeded. That says it all,” the world number 20 from Lower Austria explains. Thiem has played his most successful season so far, taking three ATP titles in Nice, Umag and Gstaad.
With Andreas Haider-Maurer and Jürgen Melzer, another two Austrians will compete on home soil. Melzer receives a wild card for the main draw. “Andreas made it to the final in 2010 and Jürgen won the tournament here two times (in 2009 and 2010). Needless to say that he will be granted an invitation,” told Straka and added that the demand for tickets has been very high. “On certain days, tickets for particular categories sell fast.”
Entry list as of September 14:
David Ferrer, ESP 8
Milos Raonic, CAN 9
Kevin Anderson, RSA 12
John Isner, USA 13
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, FRA 17
Ivo Karlovic, CRO 17
Dominic Thiem, AUT 20
Gael Monfils, FRA 24
Andreas Seppi, ITA 25
Fabio Fognini, ITA 28
Guillermo Garcia-López, ESP 31
Alexandr Dolgopolov, UKR 35
Jiri Vesely, CZE 40
Steve Johnson, USA 47
Sam Groth, AUS 54
Andreas Haider-Maurer, AUT 56
Santiago Giraldo, COL 59
Albert Ramos-Vinolas, ESP 66
Ernests Gulbis, LAT 70
Lukas Rosol, CZE 84
Jürgen Melzer, AUT 113 (WC)
Florian Mayer, GER 210 (PR)
Radek Stepanek, CZE 273 (PR)
