VIENNA, October 22, 2016
Defending champion David Ferrer and two time Vienna titlist Tommy Haas attended the main draw ceremony of the Erste Bank Open 500 on Saturday afternoon, held at the Grand Hotel in Austria’s capital city.
The tournament’s number one Andy Murray, who captured the title here in 2014, will open his Vienna campaign against Martin Klizan from Slovakia. The pair will meet for the first time. Second seed Tomas Berdych will start against a qualifier.
Home favourite and third seed Dominic Thiem will take on fellow Austrian Gerald Melzer, who was granted a wild card into the main draw. Melzer is leading 2-1 in head to head records and also emerged victorious from the last meeting between the two in Munich 2015.
Main draw ceremony with David Ferrer, tournament director Herwig Straka and Tommy Haas (photo: e-motion/Bildagentur Zolles KG/Christian Hofer)
Fourth favourite Roberto Bautista-Agut from Spain will face Gerald’s older brother Jürgen Melzer, who was also awarded with an invitation to compete in Vienna. The 35-year-old Austrian joined Radek Stepanek as only the second active player to record 300 singles and doubles career match wins on Thursday at the VTB Kremlin Cup in Moscow.
2015 champion David Ferrer, who lost in the second round of Antwerp to Kyle Edmund this week, will play the British #NextGen star again in the Stadthalle Vienna.
“Kyle is a very good and young player,” Ferrer told. “I lost to him this week and will try to beat him this time. The draw is very difficult.” A quarterfinal clash with Thiem is possible for the Spaniard. “We will see, but first of all, I will be focused on my opening match.”
Here you can watch the main draw ceremony:
