Red Bull BassLine

The only thing missing for a perfect Friday evening was the beer!

Alexander Zverev defended his title at the Red Bull BassLine.

(Bild: Philipp Carl Riedl/Red Bull Content Pool)

Games, fun, show - the fourth edition of the Red Bull BassLine delivered what it had promised in the run-up to the event. Joel Schwärzler celebrated his premiere on Vienna's Center Court and received a lot of praise from German Alexander Zverev. As in the previous year, he secured the title and raved: "The atmosphere in Vienna is tremendous, it's great fun to play here." 

"It's a great event, it's a lot of fun. One more beer - then it would be a perfect Friday evening," joked Alexander Zverev. And this drew laughter and great applause from the 5,300 fans in the Wiener Stadthalle. They got their money's worth at the fourth edition of the Red Bull BassLine, where they were treated to points worth seeing, good-humored players and a lot of fun at the show event. 

"Horror group" for Schwärzler
The show was introduced by Matthias Dandois - the French BMX freestyler presented his best tricks. The six main protagonists of the evening then took to the court. With the glowing ribbons on their arms, the fans were able to divide the players into two groups - local hero Joel Schwärzler went into the hammer group blue, together with crowd favorite Matteo Berrettini (It) and world number three Zverev. That left red for Kei Nishikori (Jp), Flavio Cobolli (It) and Alexei Popyrin (Aus). 

The match was played in front of legend Thomas Muster in a best-of-three format to five points per set, with no game lasting longer than 20 minutes in the fast-moving format, while DJ In-Style provided the fans with music during the points. The spectators joked around on the edge of the court, cheered and encouraged the fans to dance. The focus was on having fun that evening.

"A sensational player"
For Schwärzler, who had received a wild card for the main competition starting on Monday hours earlier, there was nothing to be gained against Berrettini. He won at least one set against Zverev and was beaming afterwards: "Nobody can take that away from me." The German had words of praise for the 18-year-old: "He has an incredible future ahead of him - Austria has a sensational player who is on his way to the top."

Schwärzler got his first taste of the air on Vienna's Center Court at the BassLine.

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

While Kei Nishikori failed in the group stage despite a "Japanese sushi breakfast", Popyrin and defending champion Zverev went on to win the tournament. "I'd much rather play the final here at this event than at the French Open, it's a highlight of my season," joked the German, who was in brilliant form. He won the title in the end, just like last year, and said: "The atmosphere in Vienna is tremendous. It's great fun to play at this cool event. Vienna shows that tennis can also be an entertainment sport." 

Draw on Saturday
While the qualifying starts on Saturday, in which an Austrian will also be represented with Jurij Rodionov (against Jaume Munar), the main competition of the 50th edition of the Erste Bank Open starts on Monday. With Schwärzler and Dominic Thiem, who will (probably) play his last match of his career on Tuesday, two Austrian athletes are in the main event, plus three top 10 players, Zverev, Alex de Minaur and Grigor Dimitrov. The draw will take place on Saturday at 12 noon in the STEFFL department store.