Without Roger Federer, it has become difficult for the Swiss Indoors to keep up with the parallel tournament in Vienna, which has two big trump cards. But the Swiss Indoors also has plans to become the better tournament again.
In contrast to the less interesting semi-final pairings in Basel (Rune against Auger-Aliassime and Hurkacz against Humbert), four top 10 players dueled in the Austrian capital for a place in the final. While in Vienna Jannik Sinner fought his way to victory in a thrilling three-set final against Daniil Medvedev, the spectators in Basel saw Felix Auger-Aliassime defend his title against an ailing Hurkacz thanks to winning two tiebreaks.
Jannik Sinner poses with the Vienna trophy in 2023.
Attractiveness of the field of participants
The field of participants is probably the most important criterion of a tennis tournament. As the tour draws to a close in October, injuries are also piling up. Major cancellations are inevitable for both tournaments. Only last year’s finalist Hubert Hurkacz and Roberto Carballes Baena are missing from Basel this year, while the Viennese will have to do without world number five Daniil Medvedev and US Open finalist Taylor Fritz, among others. Without the absence of the latter two, the Austrians would clearly be stronger this year. However, due to bad luck with injuries, there is a tie: the average world ranking of the top ten participants is almost identical this year (Basel 16.4; Vienna 16.7).
The only 17-year-old from Basel, Henry Bernet, who sensationally advanced to the second round in qualifying with a win against Fabio Fognini, will be remembered. Jérôme Kym, who grew up in the region, hit his first balls at ATP level and narrowly lost to Ugo Humbert in the first round game, and the victories of Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Stricker also caused a stir early in the tournament. The better script still probably lies in the city of dreams: Grand Slam winner Dominic Thiem played the last game of his career in front of his home crowd, creating images that are likely to outshine those in Basel.
The comparisons show: Vienna has advantages in terms of audience capacity and prize money, Basel in terms of reach and supporting program. In order not to have to cede the status of the third largest indoor tournament in the world to Vienna, there is no way around attracting a world-class player to Basel again. Brennwald also knows this, who has already announced that he would like to welcome the current world number 1 Jannik Sinner in Basel next year. Also to continue the series that all world number one players have played in Basel since 1974. This year, the Swiss Indoors did not contact Sinner because there is a gentlemen’s agreement between Basel and Vienna that the winner of the rival tournament will not be poached.
- Topics: ATP, basel, Jannik Sinner, Roger Federer, Sport, Swiss Indoors, tennis, tournaments
