As the Grand Slam tournament in Paris enters its decisive phase, the starting field for the Erste Bank Open from October 18 to 26 is already taking shape. Following Alexander Zverev, world number three and winner of the 2021 Vienna tournament, Lorenzo Musetti is another top ten star who has confirmed his participation in Austria's tennis highlight. Musetti will be bringing two other Italian aces with him to Austria: Flavio Cobolli and Matteo Berrettini.
Lorenzo Musetti has recently gone from one strong result to the next! At the ATP Masters 1000 tournaments this spring, he played his way to a real winning streak that catapulted him to seventh place in the world rankings. This is Musetti's best position in the ATP rankings to date. He followed up his final in Monte Carlo with semifinals in Madrid and Rome. The upward trend has continued at the French Open currently taking place in Paris with his advance to the quarterfinals. This puts the 23-year-old knocking on the door of the top 5 in the ATP annual rankings, the “Race to Turin.”
Flavio Cobolli is another up-and-coming Italian who will be playing at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna this October. The 23-year-old won his first two ATP titles this year in Bucharest and Hamburg, moving up to 26th in the rankings. Having grown up playing on clay, he is also becoming increasingly dangerous for his opponents on hard courts. Incidentally, the right-hander from Florence is one of only three players, alongside Spain's Carlos Alcaraz (Rotterdam, Monte Carlo, Rome) and Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime (Adelaide, Montpellier), to have won more than one ATP tournament this season. That's not the only reason why all tennis experts agree: Flavio Cobolli is a name to remember!
The third member of the Italian trio who has set out to thrill tennis fans in Vienna is crowd favorite Matteo Berrettini. Vienna fans still have fond memories of Berrettini's thrilling semifinal against Dominic Thiem in 2019, when the local hero had to go the full three sets on his way to victory on home soil to bring the Roman to his knees. Wimbledon finalist Berrettini (2021) perfectly embodies the combination of athleticism and style consciousness – and that goes down extremely well with tennis audiences around the world.
“We are delighted that, following Alexander Zverev, we can welcome three more outstanding players to this year's Erste Bank Open: Lorenzo Musetti, Flavio Cobolli, and Matteo Berrettini. Each of them brings their own charisma and playing style, which will delight Vienna's tennis fans. There is also justified hope that the current world number one Italian will also be playing in Vienna next October,” explains tournament director Herwig Straka.
