Vienna, October 13, 2014

On Monday evening an atmospheric opening ceremony of the 40th edition of the Erste Bank Open took place on Centre Court. A couple of special guests like Brian Gottfried, Michael Stich, Hans Kary, Thomas Muster and Jürgen Melzer attended the event and they all reflected the last four decades of tennis in Vienna. Four time champion Brian Gottfried has been inducted into the tournament’s “Hall of Fame”. As a sign, a flag with his portrait was flown. “The tournament has always been something special for me. Thank you very much, Vienna,” the US-American felt honoured.

Opening Ceremony in Vienna (Photo: Bildagentur Zolles KG)

Brian Gottfried inducted to Hall of Fame (photo: Bildagentur Zolles KG)

The 2014 edition started with the opening match of the first round. Argentine Carlos Berlocq came back from a break down in the second set to defeat Austrian Wild Card Gerald Melzer 6-3, 7-6. The world number 153 led 5-3 but failed to serve out the set in the only main draw match on Monday. The 24-year-old from Vienna is the younger brother of two-time champion Jürgen Melzer, played his seventh ATP event but is yet to win a match. “I think I had my chances but I made a lot of unforced errors from the baseline. This is frustrating in particular as this is my home tournament,” Melzer was understandably annoyed afterwards.

World number 64, Carlos Berlocq will face Philipp Kohlschreiber in the next round. The fourth-seeded German had a bye in the opening round as well as top-seeds David Ferrer and Andy Murray. The two are still in the race to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals and have already arrived in Vienna to start their preparation for the tournament. The Scot practiced for 45 minutes on Centre Court with Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares.