On Friday, tournament director Herwig Straka awarded the final wildcards for the Erste Bank Open 500, which start on Saturday with the qualification. Two Austrians, Jürgen Melzer and Dennis Novak, were awarded with the highly coveted wildcards for the main draw, as was praised “NextGen” star Felix Auger-Aliassime. The 18-year old Canadian is ranked at 109 in the world and is believed to be one of the future stars on the ATP World Tour.
Austrians in qualification
Due to being awarded with wildcards, the two Austrians Sebastian Ofner and Juri Rodionov can participate in the Vienna qualification. While Ofner will play for the third time in Vienna, Rodionov will make his debut at Austria’s biggest ATP tournament. The 19-year old from Lower Austria started the year as no. 502 but has climbed the rankings up to no. 230 by now. The third Austrian, Lucas Miedler entered the qualification as an Alternate.
Kyrgios drops out with injury
An elbow injury had Nick Kyrgios (AUS) drop out of the ATP tournament in Moscow. Due to this injury, the Australian had to quit his campaign for this season and, naturally, also had to drop out of the Vienna main draw. He will be replaced by Nikoloz Basilashvili from Georgia, the current no. 23 in the world.