World No.3 Dominic Thiem is set to become the first top-level player to return to some form of competitive tennis after signing up for a round-robin event in Vienna.
The Generali Austrian Pro Series will take place at the Tennis Leistungszentrum Südstadt and has been organised by tennis website tennisnet.com. A total of 16 players will feature in the men’s competition, which has a total prize money of 151,750 euros. The players have been split into four groups named A,B,C, and D. The A and B groups, which include Thiem, will start their matches on May 25th. Meanwhile, C and D starts on May 29th.
Australian Open runner-up Thiem will kick off the competition on Monday against world No.479 David Pichler. Later in the week he will also play Lucas Miedler and Sandro Kopp prior to the play-off matches. Meaning that he will be on the court four days in a row.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has suspended the Tour since March, the Austrian event will be played under special measures. There will be no crowd present and ball kids will not be taking part. The only person on the court other than the players will be the match umpire.
There will also be a women ‘s tournament held with a total of eight players participating. The tournament will start on June 10th and feature Barbara Haas, Tamira Paszek, Mira Antonitsch, Irina Dshandshgava, Julia Grabher, Melanie Klaffner, Sinja Kraus and Elena Karner.
Matches will also be broadcasted, but it is unclear if this will be outside of Austria. All matches will be streamed via the Tennis Net website, Laola1 TV or Facebook. Furthermore, TV station ServusTV have secured the rights to broadcast all of Thiem’s matches.
Full details of Thiem’s next event
The Groups
Group A: Dominic Thiem, Lucas Miedler, David Pichler, Sandro Kopp
Group B: Jurij Rodionov, Jürgen Melzer, Lenny Hampel, Marko Andrejic
Group C: Dennis Novak, Sam Weissborn, Alex Erler, Lukas Neumayer
Group D: Sebastian Ofner, Phillip Oswald, Max Neuchrist, Moritz Thiem
The schedule (Groups A and B only)
Tuesday May 26th
10: Lenny Hampel – Marko Andrejic
noon: Jürgen Melzer – Jurij Rodionov
4pm: Dominic Thiem – Lucas Miedler
6pm: David Pichler – Sandro Kopp
Wednesday May 27th
10: Jurij Rodionov – Lenny Hampel
noon: Jürgen Melzer – Marko Andrejic
4pm: Dominic Thiem – Sandro Kopp
6pm: Lucas Miedler – David Pichler
Thursday May 28th
10: Game for 7th place
noon: Game for 5th place
4pm: Game for 1st place
6pm: 3rd place match
