Tournament director Herwig Straka has awarded the first two wild cards for the Erste Bank Open main draw to Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Austrian Dennis Novak. Tsonga has won the tournament in 2011 and reached the finals in 2016 and 2017. Novak has reached the round of the last 16 in 2017 as his best result in Vienna.
“Jo-Wilfried Tsonga doesn’t only have a very special relationship with the Erste Bank Open but he showed great progress this year again by winning the indoor tournaments in Montpellier and Metz. Dennis Novak has shown good performances in Vienna in the past and also won the deciding match in our Davis Cup duel with Finland just a few weeks ago”, explained Straka. “We stay true to our creed to reward one wild card to a veteran player and one to a local player.” The third wild card is still up for grabs.