Although Daniil Medvedev gave up his first set of the tournament in the tennis final of the Erste Bank Open 500 in Vienna, the joy of the Russian, who defeated Denis Shapovalov (Can) 4: 6, 6: 3, 6: 2, did not do so Cancellation. “It was a good week in front of a great crowd. I enjoyed it. Not only is it going privately, but also on the pitch as desired,” said the 26-year-old, who is 500 points and 439,305 euros gross richer. But that’s not all. Medvedev has improved to third place in the world rankings with his 15th title on the tour, and he also has the long-awaited ticket for the ATP finals of the top eight this year in Turin in his pocket.
Of course, the highly satisfied tournament director Herwig Straka, who was able to congratulate two Austrians after the doubles final, also knows this. Alexander Erler (25), who replaced UTC Stein&Co. Mauthausen served, and Lucas Miedler (26) sensationally managed the double from Kitzbühel (2021) and Vienna (2022).
“I’m a bit speechless right now. It’s unbelievable that we managed to do it without losing a set,” said the Tyrolean Erler after the convincing 6: 3, 7: 6 (1) win over Santiago Gonzalez / Andres Molteni (Mex / Arg) .
Erler climbs to position 50 in the doubles world rankings, Miedler will be 55th – which of course opens up unimagined opportunities. The path suddenly leads from the Challenger Tour to the sophisticated Grand Slam level. The Australian Open 2023 is a topic for the two, who only happened to come together in 2021. That was before Kitzbühel. After the triumph, the duo could no longer be separated. Very reasonable.
Sold out since Wednesday
A big thank you goes to Straka, who gave Erler and Miedler a wild card. ÖTV sports director Jürgen Melzer also rolled out the red carpet for the “maker” from Styria because he generally pushed the red-white-red hopes this year when the “free tickets” were awarded.
Straka did everything right, the bare numbers underpin that. The Stadthalle has been completely sold out since Wednesday. With around 75,000 spectators, the 70,000 mark was broken. “That was actually unimaginable for us,” Straka marveled. “On Friday and Saturday we could certainly have sold twice as much – certainly 20,000 and more.” Since the Stadthalle reaches its limits at 9500, the planned new event complex in St. Marx is considered the tennis stage of the future.
Source: Nachrichten
