By Mark Winters
Tournament Director, Ralf Weber was upbeat in his assessment of the 26th Gerry Weber Open. He noted, the ATP 500 event, played in Halle Westfalen, “had international appeal because it is Germany’s largest tennis event. Spectator interest has been at an impressively high level with a total of 115,500 individuals attending the tournament over its nine days that include the Qualifying rounds.”
The tournament drew “spotlight” attention because of the all-star cast of players, that included Roger Federer and Alexander Zverev, entered in the competition. “In the modern men’s game today, the reality is that almost every player can beat any opponent,” Weber admitted. “No victory in a tournament of this category is a matter of course. This was seen in the early round results. The fans had hoped that Sascha (Alexander Zverev) could again play for the title, but he met Borna Coric, who was a very strong opponent, in the first-round.” (Coric went on to defeat Roger Federer in the final, 7-6, 3-6, 6-2.)
Because of its impressive reputation, the Gerry Weber Open set records for media attendance and television coverage. “This year, 450 media representatives, 70 from international organizations, along with 95 photographers, covered the tournament,” Weber said. “It is a record number that was unimaginable just a few years ago. In 2018, there was about 4,000 hours of television coverage, in a huge number of countries, on a worldwide basis. In Germany alone, 45 hours of live tennis was shown. For us, this is always an important factor in the acquisition of sponsors.”
From all indication, the tournament numbers were bigger and better than ever before. Analysis of the totals support this claim. Approximately, 3,000 tennis balls were used, over 440 tennis racquets were strung, and 6,015 yards of string was used. There were 59 tennis officials on hand, and 74 youngsters worked as ball kids.
In a classy setting, tasteful food is a must. A glance at the consumption, at the Gerry Weber Open, indicates that there were a lot of satisfied customers as indicated by one of the weightiest grocery lists of all time:
2.8 tons of meat (1.1 tons of steak)
1.6 tons of fish fillets
1.1 tons of prawns
1.2 tons of asparagus
15,000 servings of sushi
2.7 tons of strawberries
The beverage intake totals were:
2,000 bottles of champagne
Over 12,000 gallons of beer
Over 25,000 gallons of soft drinks
“I think the fans were rewarded by the special tennis experience they have with us,” Weber said. “They also enjoyed the ‘tennis entertainment’ because it offered a lot of activities (on the stage behind Gerry Weber Stadion Court) after the matches. There was a high demand for tickets for the final. They were sold earlier than ever before.”
The Weber mantra has always been “once a tournament is completed, the next one begins.” Based on early indications, the 27th edition of the Gerry Weber Open will be another spectacular.
The Tournament Director pointed out, “thousands of tickets for the next event, June 15 – 23, 2019, have already been sold. We are about 40% higher than in the same period last year.”
Knowing Ralf Weber, while this is important, he will continue to do his utmost to ensure that the 2019 Gerry Weber Open is even more memorable than the 26th version that just closed its gates in Halle.
