Swiss watch manufacturer Rado is for the ninth consecutive year official partner and time keeper of the Erste Bank Open. In 2018, the winner’s trophy was given a new look by Austrian designer Rainer Mutsch. Rado has the beautiful new trophy on display in its boutique store in Vienna’s city center (Kärntner Straße 18), where it will be kept until the day of the final.
Clear reference to Vienna and tennis
The trophy’s form reminds in an abstract form of a tennis racket. Yet, Mutsch not only used inspiration from tennis but also from Vienna, where the Erste Bank Open are held.
An essential part of Vienna’s cultural history are the coffee houses. There, people linger and watch their surroundings. Mirrors are instrumental in this as they open the room optically allowing the visitors to discreetly watch all that is happening around them. Mirrors have been used throughout all epochs of Viennese architecture and are common not only in cafés, but also bars, castles and palaces. The designer used this omnipresence to design the inside of the trophy from mirror sheet metal.
Tennis fans who want to take a look at the trophy are invited to do so at the Rado Boutique Vienna (Kärntner Straße 18).