Organization of an ATP Challenger Event: Interview with Eckental Tournament Director Marcus Slany
Once a year, Eckental in the district of Erlangen-Höchstadt in central Franconia becomes part of the international tennis circus when the ATP Challenger Tour stops in the 15,000-strong community in the fall. Also in the past week, players were again between 85th and 300th place in the ATP World Ranking List in House-of-Sports.
by Florian Heer from Eckental
last edit:
Nov 05, 2019, 07:30 pm
Together with the Wolffkran Open in Ismaning, the event is one of only two Challenger tournaments yet to be held on carpet. Already for the 23rd time the International German Indoor Championships took place, whereby the requirements of the ATP with regard to infrastructure, technology and prize money increase year by year, and the organizers are constantly confronted with new challenges.
On the final day we met with Tournament Director of Challenger Eckental, Marcus Slany.
tennisnet: Mr. Slany, how is your conclusion of the week in Eckental?
Marcus Slany: We are a very small location and the new tournament mode with a 48-meter main draw has already brought us to our limits in terms of training and hotel capacity. However, my team reacted very well. We are currently drawing lessons from this and hope to be better positioned in this area in the coming year.
What were the biggest challenges?
In the past, the onslaught of the players was better distributed by qualifying on the weekend before the start of the peloton. Since these no longer exist, they all arrive on Sunday and it is time to organize the tips of over 500 nights. This is already enormous for Eckental. We worked with five hotels. That was exciting. In addition, we were also surprised that now come on Challenger level, the players with their own coach and physio. This then also requires the provision of corresponding room capacities.
Eckental as a traditional location is often referred to as the "Gallic village".
I tend to be the Obelix. The tournament has been taking place here for 23 years now, two years as the International German Indoor Championships. The tournament has grown since then. The first few years did not really focus on tennis. Rather, it was about creating an event with the House of Sports, where people should become aware of the facility. For ten years we have really top players here and we are glad that this week too the journey to Australia will be decided many times. The mixture of young players and veterans of the tour are always great stories and the most exciting matches.
What were the highlights this week for you?
It was nice to be able to present an incredibly balanced field. In the regions of the world rankings between the positions 50 and 200 really everyone can beat everyone. I remember Florian Mayer, who was here eight or more years ago and said the sentence: "Now it's not on the ATP tour, then I'm playing four Challenger fast, I win that, get me a bit Back your confidence and go back to the big tournaments. "You can completely forget that today. A Mischa Zverev goes out in the first round. Also other German top players had to leave their feathers here.
Eckental is part of a three-week indoor swing in Germany together with Ismaning and Hamburg. What role will the tournament play in the future?
This "German Tour" comes to the ATP. If Eckental were to follow the tournament in Ismaning in the future, then the players would not have to change the rubber. I heard that Ismaning and Hamburg want to swap the weeks. I announced the tournament in the coming year in the KW 45 and it takes place thus again in the Bavarian vacation.
Keyword flooring. This year a new carpet was laid. How did this arrive at the players and did it affect the course of the game?
The feedback was extremely good. All players were excited. You can also see that tennis on carpet is a super attractive sport. The rubber here is brand new, has only been 4 weeks and is therefore a bit slower. He is taller and has more playing comfort. The old carpet was also just over after 20 years. Especially in the middle area, it was rather only green-painted concrete. Of course the ball was faster. The matches this year were on average ten minutes longer. But I attribute this less to the flooring, because the quality of the matches over three sets was also very high.
For two years, the tournament comes out without title sponsor. Is there any new results in this area?
We had almost 128 partners for the tournament this year. We were always wide-ranging. We are looking for a title sponsor. But he also has to fit in with us. We are in talks, but we are waiting in peace. We're fine. We have set up a pillar with a support group, where also individuals can support us.
The story in Eckental will continue to be written. Is there already a headline that you wish for the next year?
The DTB has awarded the title "International German Indoor Championships" back to us. We are very proud of that. This also benefits our partners and has helped with the reach of sponsorship acquisition. Everything is going to get bigger and next year the theme grandstand will be a hot one. With almost 1,300 spectators on the site, we were overcrowded. Our job will be to make the Court 1 more accessible to people. Maybe a small grandstand will be installed there as well.
Thank you for the interview and all the best for the years to come.