Hamburg TD shares plan to possibly bring Nadal, Zverev in the future
The German Tennis Championships take place in Hamburg at the end of July and over the last decade, since the event was downgraded from Masters 1000 to 500 in 2009, they have been struggling to bring the best players in the world. Rafael Nadal played in 2015 through a wild card invitation, defeating Fabio Fognini in the final. In an exclusive interview with Tennis World USA, the Tournament Director Sandra-Eva-Maria Reichel suggested the event will likely continue to take place on clay but they may switch to April or May prior to the French Open. Last year in a conference call Reichel, who is running the event for the first time, had said that bringing Nadal and Alexander Zverev was their goal. But they have failed to do it so far. "It's difficult because it's in July on clay after Wimbledon, it's a tough call especially for players who switch from grass to hard and Zverev is one of those players. There is nothing we change shortly but we are thinking about working on switching date. We need the ATP for that, so this is not easy. This is very difficult because there are a lot of different parts involved. The club features four of five courts and we should switch them from clay to hard. So that's not realistic. We should do several steps and we cannot do them", said Reichel.
On Dominic Thiem and Fabio Fognini instead competing in Hamburg, Reichel added: "They love to play on clay also after Wimbledon. We are very happy with Thiem, that's great, he is one of the most talented players and his character and personality are great. He is a great role model for the next generations, he is an unbelievable player, one of the best also for the future. Fognini is great as well, and it's great to have so many emotions on court, so he is good for tennis."
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2VBCB8Q
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