Breaking News: Austrians to play French in aircraft hangar for opening rounds of the 2011 Davis Cup
The Austrian Tennis Federation recently announced that its team for the Davis Cup in 2011 will be competing against the French team (runners-up for the event this year) on a clay court. Furthermore, the match will be held in an
aircraft hangar.
When asked about the unusual choice of venue, the Austrian Tennis Federation told sources that a hangar at the country’s main airport will be used. Currently, this hangar is used for airplane maintenance, it will soon be converted
into a tennis stadium with the capacity to seat over 6000 people just in time for the first Davis Cup matches, from March 4th-6th, next year.
The Federation had considerable trouble finding suitable courts for the event in Vienna, reportedly, no venues were available for the tournament week.
Fans and players alike were concerned about the amount of airport noise around the courts. However, Austrian tennis pro Jurgen Melzer (who will be a part of the team for 2011) expressed the opinion that he did not feel it would
cause much of a disturbance. Melzer added that he did not feel that the noise from airplanes would bother the players, because aircrafts fly over the stadiums at Flushing Meadows during the US Open all the time, and it does not seem to bother anyone.
This season was a particularly interesting one for the Davis Cup, where the Serbian team emerged as victors after a 3-2 defeat of France, with Frenchman Michael Llodra falling to Serb Viktor Troicki. While France was overthrown
by Serbia for their maiden victory in the final, the Austrian Davis Cup team has not been able to cross the first round of the premier event since 1995. Most spectators will be expecting a victory from France in the first round.
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