Dominic Thiem enjoyed a breakthrough this past summer, when he won his first title on home soil at the Generali Open in Kitzbuhel. He will look to continue his success in Austria at the Erste Bank Open, an ATP 500 tournament. Thiem, a winner of four tour-level titles this season, will be making his ninth appearance in Vienna, where he is a two-time quarter-finalist.

Matteo Berrettini, a recent semi-finalist in Shanghai, will attempt to strengthen his position in the top eight of the ATP Race to London with a strong showing in Vienna. Gael Monfils, Diego Schwartzman and Karen Khachanov, who trail Berrettini by less than 1,000 points in the standings, will look to gain valuable Race points in order to boost their Nitto ATP Finals hopes.

The field also includes Next Gen ATP Finals qualifiers Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov, former World No. 3 Grigor Dimitrov and 2011 champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Here’s all you need to know about the Vienna tennis tournament: what is the schedule, where to watch, who has won and more.  

Established: 1974

Tournament Dates: 21-27 October 2019

Tournament Director: Herwig Straka

Draw Ceremony: Saturday, 19 October, 12:00pm at the Marriott

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Schedule (View On Official Website)
* Qualifying: starts Saturday at 11:00am
* Main draw: starts Monday at 2:00pm
* Doubles final: Sunday, 27 October at 11:45am
* Singles final: Sunday, 27 October at 2:00pm

How To Watch
Watch Live On Tennis TV 
TV Schedule

Venue: Wiener Stadthalle
Main Court Seating: 8,800
Surface: Indoor Hard

Prize Money: € 2,296,490 (Total Financial Commitment: € 2,433,810)  

Tickets On Sale: Buy Now

View Who Is Playing, Past Champions, Seeds, Points & Prize Money Breakdown

Honour Roll (Open Era)
Most Titles, Singles: Brian Gottfried (4)
Most Titles, Doubles: Bob Hewitt, Anders Jarryd, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Lukasz Kubot, Frew McMillan (3)
Oldest Champion: Tommy Haas, 35, in 2013
Youngest Champion: Horst Skoff, 20, in 1988
Lowest-Ranked Champion (since 1978): No. 175 Anders Jarryd in 1990
Most Match Wins: Brian Gottfried (31)

2018 Finals
Singles: [2] Kevin Anderson (RSA) d [5] Kei Nishikori (JPN) 63 76(3)   Read & Watch
Doubles: Joe Salisbury (GBR) / Neal Skupski (GBR) d Mike Bryan (USA) / Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) 76(5) 63  Read More

Social
Hashtag: #ErsteBankOpen
Facebook: @erstebankopen
Instagram: @erstebankopen
Twitter: @erstebankopen

Did You Know… Austrian Thomas Muster, a former World No. 1, never won the Vienna title, though he reached the final three times. Horst Skoff became the first Austrian to triumph here, with victory over Muster in the 1988 final. Jurgen Melzer joined Skoff on the honour roll with back-to-back singles titles in 2009-10. 

Roger Federer returns to his hometown tournament in pursuit of a 10th Swiss Indoors Basel title. The 38-year-old Swiss, who was a Basel ball boy as a child, has won 20 straight matches at this ATP 500 tournament and reached the final the past 12 times he’s played the event. 

“To come through and win again here in my hometown, never knowing if this might be your last time that you had the opportunity to play a final, maybe win for the last time here in my city, it obviously means a lot to me and it becomes very emotional,” Federer said following his triumph last year.

Federer will be joined in Basel by fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka, World No. 7 Stefanos Tsitsipas and a number of Nitto ATP Finals contenders, including Alexander Zverev, Roberto Bautista Agut and Fabio Fognini. Tsitsipas claimed the sixth spot in the elite eight-man field at The O2, leaving just two spots up for grabs with two weeks left in the regular season.

Here’s all you need to know about the Basel tennis tournament: what is the schedule, where to watch, who has won and more. 

Established: 1970

Tournament Dates: 21-27 October 2019

Tournament Director: Roger Brennwald

Draw Ceremony: Saturday, 19 October, at 4:00pm, at the Town Hall in Basel

Schedule (View On Official Website)
* Qualifying: Saturday & Sunday at 12:00pm
* Main draw: Monday – Friday at 1:00pm and 7:00pm, Saturday at 12:00pm
* Doubles final: Sunday, 27 October at 12:00pm
* Singles final: Sunday, 27 October not before 3:00pm

How To Watch
Watch Live On Tennis TV 
TV Schedule

Venue: St. Jakobshalle Basel
Main Court Seating: 9,000
Surface: Indoor Hard

Prize Money: € 2,082,655 (Total Financial Commitment: € 2,219,975)  

Tickets On Sale: Buy Now

View Who Is Playing, Past Champions, Seeds, Points & Prize Money Breakdown

Honour Roll (Open Era)
Most Titles, Singles: Roger Federer (9)
Most Titles, Doubles: Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan, Daniel Nestor, Tomas Smid, Nenad Zimonjic (4)
Oldest Champion (since 1972): Roger Federer, 37, in 2018
Youngest Champion (since 1972): Jim Courier, 19, in 1989
Lowest-Ranked Champion (since 1978): No. 35 Jim Courier in 1989 
Most Match Wins: Roger Federer (71)

2018 Finals
Singles: [1] Roger Federer (SUI) d [Q] Marius Copil (ROU) 76(5) 64   Read & Watch
Doubles: Dominic Inglot (GBR) / Franko Skugor (CRO) d Alexander Zverev (GER) / Mischa Zverev (GER) 62 75  Read More

Social
Hashtag: #swissindoorsbasel
Facebook: @swissindoorsbasel
Instagram: @swissindoorsbasel_official

Did You Know… Each of the 12 years he’s reached the final at the Swiss Indoors Basel, Federer has thrown a post-match pizza party for all the ball boys and girls. Read More

Henri Kontinen/Edouard Roger-Vasselin continued their outstanding run on Friday at the Intrum Stockholm Open, saving three match points in a thrilling 6-3, 3-6, 16-14 semi-final victory over fourth seeds Wesley Koolhof/Fabrice Martin.

The Finnish-French pairing fought back from 8/9, 10/11 and 12/13 in the Match Tie-break to move closer to their first ATP Tour doubles crown as a team. Kontinen seeks his second ATP Tour doubles title of the year and Roger-Vasselin looks for his fourth.

Kontinen/Roger-Vasselin await the winner of top seeds Jean-Julien Rojer/Horia Tecau and third seeds Mate Pavic/Bruno Soares. Rojer/Tecau prevailed over Andre Goransson/Nathaniel Lammons 7-6(5) 6-2. Pavic/Soares, last week’s champions at the Rolex Shanghai Masters (d. Kubot/Melo), cruised through Radu Albot/Robert Lindstedt 6-3, 6-3.

At the VTB Kremlin Cup in Moscow, Simone Bolelli/Andres Molteni upset third seeds Marcus Daniell/Philipp Oswald 6-4, 6-4 to reach the final. They’ll face fourth seeds Marcelo Demoliner/Matwe Middelkoop or Thomas Fabbiano/Andreas Seppi in Saturday’s championship match.

European Open top seeds Kevin Krawietz/Andreas Mies encountered few problems in their 6-4, 6-3 quarter-final win over Sander Arends/David Pel in Antwerp. The German pair are aiming for their first title since prevailing at Roland Garros (d. Chardy/Martin) as they look to qualify for a debut appearance at the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals, held at The O2 in London from 10-17 November.

Eighteen-year-old #NextGenATP star Jannik Sinner’s stock continues to rise.

The Italian teen reached his first ATP Tour semi-final on Friday, defeating fellow #NextGenATP player Frances Tiafoe of the United States 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to make the last four of the European Open in Antwerp. Sinner is the youngest tour-level semi-finalist since 17-year-old Borna Coric accomplished the feat in Basel five years ago.

“I just can say thanks for the wild card!” Sinner said on court after his one-hour, 42-minute triumph. “I think I played good today once more. It was not easy in the end. I was shaking a little bit. On the important points, I was serving quite good, and I’m happy to be in the semi-finals.”

Sinner is proving mature beyond his years, showing a steady composure throughout his run in Antwerp as a wild card. At a career-high No. 119 in the ATP Rankings, Sinner broke Tiafoe for 4-2 in the deciding set with a lasered forehand passing shot that forced a backhand volley error.

But the pressure mounted as he served for victory at 5-3, with a miss on a sitting volley on top of the net giving Tiafoe two break points. Sinner responded well, saving both of those chances with his serve, forcing errors off the American’s racquet. After eliciting a backhand into the net at deuce, Sinner finished off his win with another big serve.

“I tried to start well in the third set, and I think I served a little bit better in the third set. I think that was the key,” Sinner said. “Of course at the end I was shaking a little bit. I tried to reset after the easy volley in the last game and I served a very good first serve and second serve, so I’m very happy now that I’ve reached the semi-finals.”

Sinner struck 10 aces in the match and saved four of the five break points he faced to back up his second-round win over top seed Gael Monfils, which was his first Top 50 victory. The teen was already the youngest quarter-finalist in this event’s history and the youngest player to reach the last eight on the ATP Tour since 18-year-old Felix Auger-Aliassime did it last year in Chengdu.

“I played against a tough player, of course. I tried to play my tennis. In the first set, it worked. In the second set, he was a little bit more aggressive, so I felt a little bit under pressure,” Sinner said. “I tried to play quite long, quite deep the ball. It worked very good today.”

Depending on results at other events this week, Sinner could potentially crack the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings on Monday for the first time. This week last year, he was World No. 778. In the semi-finals, Sinner will face former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka — to whom he lost in four sets in his Grand Slam debut at the US Open — or former World No. 6 Gilles Simon.

“Both players are very good,” Sinner said. “I hope I can play once more against Wawrinka, so maybe I can win this time, and I’m looking forward to the next one.”

Denis Shapovalov breezed into his fourth ATP Tour semi-final of the year on Friday at the Intrum Stockholm Open. The fourth-seeded Canadian overcame German qualifier Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 6-0, 6-3 in just 49 minutes.

Shapovalov barely put a foot wrong in the first set, which lasted 18 minutes and finished with a forehand winner. He won 21 of 22 first-service points in the set. Stebe struck a double fault to hand his opponent a 3-2 advantage in the second set, and Shapovalov clinched his 29th match win of 2019 with a smash winner.

On Thursday, Shapovalov qualified for next month’s Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan. He has reached tour-level semi-finals this year at the Miami Open presented by Itau (l. to Federer), the Winston-Salem Open (l. to Hurkacz) and at the Chengdu Open (l. to Carreno Busta).

Shapovalov will next challenge Japanese lucky loser Yuichi Sugita, who defeated Serbian Janko Tipsarevic in a dramatic 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(4) thriller. Tipsarevic, competing in the final ATP Tour event of his career, bravely saved nine match points in the deciding set. But with both men cramping and running on fumes late in the final set, Sugita refused to be overwhelmed by his opponent’s tenacity. He went on a five-point run in the tie-break before advancing in three hours and 10 minutes.

“This is one of the most emotional matches for me,” Sugita said. “I just tried my best.”

The victory puts Sugita into his first ATP Tour semi-final of the year. He now seeks his maiden win over the #NextGenATP Canadian after losing their lone clash two years ago in Basel.

Pablo Carreno Busta continued his fine late-season run of form earlier on Friday. The fifth-seeded Spaniard battled back to beat American Sam Querrey, who struck 16 aces, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 in one hour and 38 minutes. Three weeks ago, former World No. 10 Carreno Busta lifted his fourth ATP Tour title at the Chengdu Open (d. Bublik).

The 28-year-old will next play Serbia’s Filip Krajinovic for the first time at tour-level. The pair previously split two ATP Challenger Tour matches at 2013 Poznan and 2015 Braunschweig.

Krajinovic booked a place in the semi-finals by beating Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan 6-3, 6-4 in 70 minutes. Krajinovic has a career-high 26 match wins this year, highlighted by a run to the Hungarian Open final (l. to Berrettini).

Roger Federer will return to Roland Garros in 2020. The 38-year-old World No. 3 shared his plans with CNN this week. “I will play the French Open,” Federer said.

The Swiss competed at the clay-court major this year for the first time since 2015, reaching his eighth Roland Garros semi-final before falling to 12-time champion Rafael Nadal.

Federer announced earlier in the week that he plans to compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in July as well.

Marin Cilic carved more history for himself on Thursday at the VTB Kremlin Cup in Moscow. The Croatian earned his 500^th career win, beating countryman Ivo Karlovic 6-1, 7-6(5) to become only the 50^th player in the Open Era to achieve the milestone and just the 10^th active player with 500 or more victories.

Cilic raced through the opener behind two breaks and didn’t face a break point. In the second, Karlovic raised his level but Cilic fought through a tough 3-4 game in which he erased three break points and found a way to advance in the tie-break.

The two-time Moscow champion will next meet France’s Jeremy Chardy, who was untouchable on serve during a 6-3, 6-4 victory against eighth seed Miomir Kecmanovic. Chardy won 83 per cent of his first-serve points and never faced a break point against the Next Gen ATP Finals hopeful.

Sixth seed Andrey Rublev hadn’t won a match at his home tournament before this week. Now the 21-year-old is into the quarter-finals.

Rublev beat Belarusian qualifier Egor Gerasimov 7-6(3), 6-7(7), 6-2 to make the last eight at the ATP 250. Rublev saved six of seven (86%) break points and ran away with the deciding set behind two breaks of serve.

“I’ve known Egor for a long time and I know how he can play. His level does not match his ranking,” Rublev said of Gerasimov, No. 98 in the ATP Rankings. “He’s been showing it for the past couple of months. He is showing good results… against very strong players. He recently beat Matteo Berrettini. I knew it would be very hard.”

The Hamburg European Open finalist (l. to Basilashvili) will next meet Serbian lucky loser Nikola Milojevic, who beat Russian wild card Alen Avidzba 7-5, 6-0. Milojevic took the place of Daniil Medvedev at the top of the draw once Medvedev withdrew following his Rolex Shanghai Masters title on Sunday.

Thirteen years after recording his first ATP Tour match win, Marin Cilic is continuing to add to his legacy.

The Croatian’s latest milestone arrived on Thursday when he earned his 500th tour-level win against Ivo Karlovic at the VTB Kremlin Cup. Cilic is one of just 10 active players on Tour to achieve the feat.

“It would definitely mean that I’ve had an amazing career. I’ve been on the Tour for many years and, more or less, every season has been quite consistent from me,” Cilic told ATPTour.com. “I’ve played a lot of matches and there’s always an opportunity to learn from every match. That’s the nice part of tennis.

“I’m aware of [the milestones] when I achieve them and it’s a huge satisfaction that the work is showing itself in the results. Overall, my goal is to be the best I can be. You always want to be pushing that limit and never be too satisfied. It’s definitely important to have that motivation to keep moving you forward.”

CAREER 500 MATCH WINS CLUB (Active players as of 17 October 2019)

Utilising one of the best serves of his generation to set up an aggressive baseline game centered around his forehand, Cilic has been a staple at the highest levels of the sport for more than a decade. He’s won 18 tour-level singles crowns, including victories at the 2014 US Open (d. Nishikori) and 2016 Western & Southern Open (d. Murray). He also led Croatia to the Davis Cup title last year. The 31-year-old has spent 191 weeks inside the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings and peaked at No. 3 in January 2018.

Cilic’s maiden Grand Slam crown was “a dream come true” for him. From the moment he stepped on Arthur Ashe Stadium for the first time that year, the Croatian fed off the raucous energy of the New York crowd and delivered three of the greatest matches of his career in succession. Cilic sprinted past World No. 7 Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals, then emphatically defeated Roger Federer for the first time in six attempts before dominating Kei Nishikori in the championship clash.

Fittingly, among those in attendance was Goran Ivanisevic, Cilic’s then-coach and the only other Croatian man in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam singles title.

“[I] had an incredible time… played tremendously well and just enjoyed every single moment,” Cilic told ATPTour.com in August. “It’s just an electrifying atmosphere with the whole stadium screaming and enjoying tennis, loving the game and giving us great pleasure to play. When you are there battling it out, you definitely feel appreciated by all the people. You just try to play the best you can and when you are pumped with adrenaline, I think the best tennis comes out of you.”

But while Cilic’s US Open triumph made him a hero in Croatia, he looks back on his maiden ATP Masters 1000 crown in Cincinnati with equal fondness. He hadn’t reached the last four at a Masters 1000 event prior to that week, but outlasted Grigor Dimitrov in a marathon semi-final that finished at 1:30 am before putting on a flawless serving display to defeat Andy Murray for the title.

“It was just incredible in every single department,” Cilic said. “When you’re a youngster just coming on the Tour, you feel that you have so many years in front of you and that your chance is going to come. But when you get on the Tour, you see the competition is extremely strong and everyone is so motivated. You start to notice that years are going by and you’re getting less chances.

“When you do take that chance as I did, it’s just incredible. It gives you extra belief and confidence in your own game. You don’t need to worry about if your game is good enough to win these types of events, especially against the best guys.”

Cilic isn’t one to rest on his past accomplishments, though. He still feels motivated to pursue more big wins on Tour and believes there are plenty of years left to continue adding to his tally.

“I’d like to be able to get 600 wins,” Cilic said. “It would be an amazing achievement.”

CILIC’S MILESTONE MATCH WINS

Denis Shapovalov has qualified for the Next Gen ATP Finals once again. The 20-year-old Canadian, who debuted at the inaugural 21-and-under event in 2017, secured his place when Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic lost in Moscow on Thursday.

Here are five things to know about one of the #NextGenATP leaders.

1. He can play big on the big stages.
Shapovalov has reached at least one ATP Masters 1000 semi-final the past three seasons. In 2017, he beat Juan Martin del Potro and World No. 2 Rafael Nadal en route to the Coupe Rogers semi-finals in Montreal (l. to Zverev).

Shapovalov was staying in Felix Auger-Aliassime’s basement at the time, and his friend had a poster of Rafa hanging in his house. But Shapovalov ripped it down before upsetting Nadal in the third round.

In 2018, Shapovalov made the semi-finals of the Mutua Madrid Open before falling to eventual champion Alexander Zverev, and this year, the Canadian fell to eventual champion Roger Federer at the Miami Open presented by Itau.

2. He and Federer go “way back”.
Shapovalov lists Federer as his idol, and the two have been on the court together a couple times already. Shapovalov, then 15, warmed up Federer before his Masters 1000 semi-final against Spain’s Feliciano Lopez at the 2014 Rogers Cup in Toronto, Shapovalov’s hometown.

The Canadian has watched countless Federer matches, and the two faced off for the first time in Miami. Shapovalov had said that it was a dream come true to face the Swiss star on such a big stage. But Shapovalov’s favourite part of the 6-2, 6-4 loss ended up being “the warmup”.

“It’s kind of surreal, being on the court against him. Obviously I wasn’t trying to focus on the fact that it’s Roger on the other side,” Shapovalov said at the time. “I was just trying to play as good as I can, and he did a good job today. He played an excellent match. I wasn’t able to kind of stay at his level. So I’m just going to try to learn from this and move forward.”

More On Shapo
Read & Watch: A Nadal Poster Hung On Felix’s Wall… Until Shapovalov Came To Visit
Shapovalov’s Surprising Favourite Moment Against Federer In Miami
Read & Watch: Raonic, Shapo, Felix Celebrate Toronto Raptors NBA Title

3. He has a former ATP Tour champion in his coaching corner.
Since the Winston-Salem Open in August, Shapovalov has been working with former World No. 8 Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, who retired at last year’s St. Petersburg Open. During their first week together, Shapovalov reached his second ATP Tour semi-final of the season (l. to Hurkacz).

“We’ve definitely talked a lot, mentally speaking and how I want to approach these matches, and a couple things during the matches, what I should be focusing on. So he’s definitely helped me quite a bit,” Shapovalov said in Winston-Salem.

4. He could be a budding rapper.
Shapovalov can play well on the big stages, and he also can rap well in front of thousands of people. The Canadian showed off his rapping skills after beating Marin Cilic in March at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.

Watch: Shapovalov Raps After Indian Wells Win

5. He has had a special friend in his box.
The stuffed wolf in Shapovalov’s corner is not a comfort animal from when he was younger; Shapovalov purchased the animal last year in Brisbane. The #NextGenATP Canadian tries to play tennis with the ferocity of a wolf, and thought “Storm” would make a good addition to his team.

“I kind of tried to resemble myself to a wolf. I like to have a couple friends with me. I have a close group of friends with me. I can be pretty, not playful, but I like to joke around off the court. When it’s down to business, when I’m hunting, when I’m on court, I’m pretty fierce, intense. I show my teeth. I’m very emotional, very similar to a wolf,” Shapovalov said last year.

“We kind of started calling ourselves the Wolf Pack. We thought we needed a mascot. We found this northern wolf in Brisbane. It was actually in the airport. We thought, ‘Listen, we’ve got to take him. Yeah, we got to adopt him into our family.’ He came with a little tag. His name was Storm.

“We didn’t even have to think of a name, which was good. We weren’t too good with names.”

Watch: Why Does Shapovalov Have A Wolf In His Players Box?