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Valencia Open sells ATP 500 status to Vienna

By Geoff Nichols

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Valencia Open sells ATP 500 status to Vienna

The Valencia Open has reportedly sold it’s ATP 500 tag due to a shortage of funds and moving forward it will be considered as an ATP 250 event instead. Whilst there seems to be no official news or announcement as yet from the ATP, several sources are reporting a deal.

If the rumours are to be believed, then the Erste Bank Open based in Vienna, Austria, are set to buy the ATP 500 status from the Valencia tournament. The reasoning behind this strange sale seems to be centred around a drop in funding for tennis from the government to Valencia.

The Vienna Open is set to begin on the 19th October, with the Valencia Open beginning one week later on the 26th October, but it is unknown whether the two will swap dates. Given the planning that is involved in drawing out the ATP calendar, you would imagine this would have to happen.

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For Andy Murray, Valencia Open 2014 Champion, and other players it could present in interesting dilemma. Will the British number one care to try and defend his title or will he be attracted to Vienna given that there are more points available.

Whilst he is defending titles at both events, should the scheduling of the tournaments not be altered, there will be the possibility of players entering two consecutive ATP 500 events. The first would be at the Vienna Open, followed by the Swiss Indoors in Basel a week later, which is also an ATP 500 event.

The legality of this move is unclear as there haven’t been too many high profile examples of two tournaments exchanging their status. Fortunately it doesn’t affect the amount of tennis on offer and if Valencia don’t have the fund to run a 500 event, then hopefully Vienna will pick up where the Valencia Open left off.

Next: Will Stan Wawrinka be a one slam wonder?

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