Rotterdam director reveals the impact of Carlos Alcaraz on the tournament ticket prices
Carlos Alcaraz is set to make his debut at the Rotterdam Open in February, after being one of the first players to be announced.
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Carlos Alcaraz has impacted Rotterdam Open's ticket prices (Via X and Puntodebreak)
Carlos Alcaraz is set to make his ABN AMRO Open debut in Rotterdam in 2025. Last year there were two weeks in between the Australian Open and the Rotterdam Open. This year the Rotterdam tournament starts on 3rd February, whereas the final of the Australian Open is on 26th January. That leaves little preparation time for the players. It is a decision that the ATP took after slightly reforming the playing calendar.
Thus the chance of the infamous cancellations for Rotterdam Ahoy is even more lurking! For Richard Krajicek, the 1996 Wimbledon champion and now the tournament director of the ABN Amro Open, the cancellations have now become a recurring theme. The transition from the hot and humid Australian summer to the indoor hard courts of Europe within a short span of time can be demanding.
His (Carlos Alcaraz) arrival was added to the normal budget, but we were able to reach good agreements with him. We don’t do this every year or every two years. We only do it in very special cases, like in 2018 with the arrival of Roger Federer. In any case, ticket sales exploded after the announcement of Alcaraz’s arrival.
Richard Krajicek via NOS Sport
Richard Krajicek pointed out that the fact that the tournament starts a week earlier is actually an advantage in Carlos Alcaraz’s case. After the Rotterdam Open, Alcaraz will play at Doha from 19th February .Those events are not consecutive, which means Alcaraz has enough recovery time for himself.
If Rotterdam and Doha were held a week apart, it wouldn’t have been possible to make it, Krajicek remarked. He further added that the new calendar arrangement worked to their advantage in Alcaraz’s case. The Spaniard’s arrival in Ahoy was a fervent wish of Krajicek, who called this calendar arrangement a ‘stroke of luck’.
A potential Carlos Alcaraz vs. Jannik Sinner final at Rotterdam?
Richard Krajicek was less fortunate at the 2022 edition. He chose to give Andy Murray a wildcard at the expense of the then 18-year-old Carlos Alcaraz. Alcaraz was then signed for three years by another tournament, making Krajicek wonder if Alcaraz would ever come back to them.
It was a lapse of judgement that Richard Krajicek has now thoroughly polished away with the presentation of an impressive line up of participants for the 2025 edition. Jannik Sinner, the World No. 1 who was contracted for two years in Ahoy in 2024, and World No. 5 Danill Medvedev have also been signed.
Carlos Alcaraz is currently at Melbourne, preparing for the Australian Open. At the age of 21, he is eyeing to become the youngest man to achieve a career Grand Slam. For men’s tennis, Rafael Nadal holds the record as the youngest to achieve the Career Slam in the Open Era. He completed the feat at the age of 24 by winning the US Open in 2010.
Richard Krajicek now hopes that Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz will leave Melbourne unscathed. In his opinion the duo is dominating tennis now, although Novak Djokovic is still there. A final at Ahoy between Alcaraz and Sinner, the 2024 Rotterdam Open champion would be the icing on the cake for Krajicek.
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Anubhav Bajpeyee
(211 Articles Published)