Shanghai, Dubai, Båstad - 2011 best tourny winners. AGAIN!

J

joeri888

G.O.A.T.
Rotterdam is way cooler than Dubai. Though in terms of money, facilities and fuield, Dubai wins easily. Crowds are more knowledgable and stadium is cooler in Rotterdam
 
E

elpolaco84

Guest
Seems like they pay the Top seeds to vote for shanghai, lame...
 
MariaRafael

MariaRafael

Banned
Shangai is my least favourite tournament. The stadium is ugly, the public is not interested, the ballkids don't understand what is requested from them, the town is fully polluted which doesn't improve players' health, etc. Pays a lot to ATP. THis is the only reason it's called the best.
 
MG1

MG1

Professional
i think shanghai provide best facilities to players that's y they vote for it.
 
Rock Strongo

Rock Strongo

Legend
If you've ever been to Båstad, you'd understand why it's always rated as the best tournament. A little town on the edge of a peninsula right where Skåne and Halland meet, as docile as any other small town on any other week turns into a funhouse with thousands of people partying, playing tennis and enjoying the Swedish summer. The way the centre court is located is kind of reminiscent of Monte Carlo (pic below), the facilities are outstanding as well.

Here's a pic explaining why it's lovable
flickr-2464042839-image.jpg
 
niff

niff

Legend
Rock Strongo said:
If you've ever been to Båstad, you'd understand why it's always rated as the best tournament. A little town on the edge of a peninsula right where Skåne and Halland meet, as docile as any other small town on any other week turns into a funhouse with thousands of people partying, playing tennis and enjoying the Swedish summer. The way the centre court is located is kind of reminiscent of Monte Carlo (pic below), the facilities are outstanding as well.

Here's a pic explaining why it's lovable
flickr-2464042839-image.jpg
Click to expand...
Omg that's so cute! <3 Maybe I shall skip Halle for Båstad next summer!

edit: how much are tickets for the week? Doesn't have the info on the website.
 
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Mainad

Mainad

Bionic Poster
MariaRafael said:
Shangai is my least favourite tournament. The stadium is ugly, the public is not interested, the ballkids don't understand what is requested from them, the town is fully polluted which doesn't improve players' health, etc. Pays a lot to ATP. THis is the only reason it's called the best.
Click to expand...

Well, it certainly wouldn't get the fans' vote that's for sure but the point is that it's the players themselves who vote for it and have done so for 3 consecutive years now! The reason is that the tournament pampers them more than any of the others do and they all feel quite comfortable playing there. Obviously that compensates a great deal for the lack of crowd atmosphere!
 
M

monfed

Guest
joeri888 said:
Rotterdam is way cooler than Dubai. Though in terms of money, facilities and fuield, Dubai wins easily. Crowds are more knowledgable and stadium is cooler in Rotterdam
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Got that vibe too! Wonder why Fed chose to skip it all those years. :(
 
kishnabe

kishnabe

Talk Tennis Guru
Shanghai is the best tourney of MS1000 for the players since it has really good facilities compared to the rest. But as a fan prospect it is the worst Masters 1000 of all of them.
 
P

purge

Hall of Fame
Rock Strongo said:
If you've ever been to Båstad, you'd understand why it's always rated as the best tournament. A little town on the edge of a peninsula right where Skåne and Halland meet, as docile as any other small town on any other week turns into a funhouse with thousands of people partying, playing tennis and enjoying the Swedish summer. The way the centre court is located is kind of reminiscent of Monte Carlo (pic below), the facilities are outstanding as well.
Click to expand...
its just too bad fed never plays it. if he did id be up there in a blink of an eye. i love sweden anyway :D
 
niff

niff

Legend
tennis_pro said:
Man, please tell me about the whole thing! Where did you buy the tickets, are they expensive etc.?
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I always buy them online: http://www.gerryweber-open.de/gwo_en, cost me £300 for tier 1 tickets for a week but last year I had tier 2 tickets for the final 4 days, which was £150. There are just two courts, the stadium and court 1 (and practice courts) and the court 1 is accessible with just a ground pass.

It can be hard to find somewhere to stay in Halle itself though there are local people who rent rooms during the tournament, it's easiest to stay in Bielefeld (there's an etap hotel in bielefeld too which is super cheap), 25 min train journey away, and local train fares in Germany are cheap.

The stadium is like a 5 minute walk away from halle centre, which consists of about 1 shop, 20 bakeries and a marketplace ...typical small German town. There are pubs, and a boring forest nearby.

The stadium is really nice and cosy, haha. And has a roof, which is always good! It's really easy to get close to the players as often they will come and sign around the side of the stadium after every match, and they also stay in the hotel which is attached to the tennis complex. It's really relaxed and awesome, I once saw Kohli just wandering around the site not being bothered haha. It has cheesy exhibitions and music and mascots which I find quite cute :D

You should deffo go! Lineup of players looks especially sweet this year. Aaaaaand if you want to see Fed, I'm pretty sure he'll be here in 2012.
 
tennis_pro

tennis_pro

Bionic Poster
niff said:
I always buy them online: http://www.gerryweber-open.de/gwo_en, cost me £300 for tier 1 tickets for a week but last year I had tier 2 tickets for the final 4 days, which was £150. There are just two courts, the stadium and court 1 (and practice courts) and the court 1 is accessible with just a ground pass.

It can be hard to find somewhere to stay in Halle itself though there are local people who rent rooms during the tournament, it's easiest to stay in Bielefeld (there's an etap hotel in bielefeld too which is super cheap), 25 min train journey away, and local train fares in Germany are cheap.

The stadium is like a 5 minute walk away from halle centre, which consists of about 1 shop, 20 bakeries and a marketplace ...typical small German town. There are pubs, and a boring forest nearby.

The stadium is really nice and cosy, haha. And has a roof, which is always good! It's really easy to get close to the players as often they will come and sign around the side of the stadium after every match, and they also stay in the hotel which is attached to the tennis complex. It's really relaxed and awesome, I once saw Kohli just wandering around the site not being bothered haha. It has cheesy exhibitions and music and mascots which I find quite cute :D

You should deffo go! Lineup of players looks especially sweet this year. Aaaaaand if you want to see Fed, I'm pretty sure he'll be here in 2012.
Click to expand...

Yay! Thanks for the info. I really wanted to go last year but because of some unfortunate circumstances I had to postpone me plans for another time.
Since it would be my first live tourny I'm thinking about buying Cat 1 tickets for the last 4 days, the problem is I'd probably have to camp in Halle alone cause I don't think anyone else I know would afford such journey. My only mates who are into tennis can't even afford a good racquet so it's a pity.

1 more thing - do you buy tickets for specific seats or is it more like first come first served for your cathegory?
 
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niff

niff

Legend
tennis_pro said:
Yay! Thanks for the info. I really wanted to go last year but because of some unfortunate circumstances I had to postpone me plans for another time.
Since it would be my first live tourny I'm thinking about buying Cat 1 tickets for the last 4 days, the problem is I'd probably have to camp in Halle alone cause I don't think anyone else I know would afford such journey. My only mates who are into tennis can't even afford a good racquet so it's a pity.

1 more thing - do you buy tickets for specific seats or is it more like first come first served for your cathegory?
Click to expand...
Yeah you get seats, usually the same seat for all the days you buy :) Hope you can make it!
 
kaku

kaku

Professional
The votes are made by players, who vote more based on the facilities and how they are treated more than anything. That being said, I always get a little lonely watching Shanghai because there is absolutely no atmosphere unique to the crowd there, unless you count dead silence until a top 4 matchup as atmosphere.
 
Rock Strongo

Rock Strongo

Legend
niff said:
Omg that's so cute! <3 Maybe I shall skip Halle for Båstad next summer!

edit: how much are tickets for the week? Doesn't have the info on the website.
Click to expand...

I don't know yet, I'm booking my tickets in a few weeks. However you should come as some of the world's premier players attend every year, the Swedish people are super-friendly towards foreigners and the general atmosphere is second to none.
 
niff

niff

Legend
purge said:
hell no theyre not oO
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Hahah I guess it's all relative ... in the UK the cost of train travel is just spiralling, and plus we don't have any of the all day travel tickets etc on normal train lines. I noticed German advanced fares seem lower than over here too, more generous.

Rock Strongo said:
I don't know yet, I'm booking my tickets in a few weeks. However you should come as some of the world's premier players attend every year, the Swedish people are super-friendly towards foreigners and the general atmosphere is second to none.
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I remember at Roskilde being camped next to some Swedes, insta-friends :) Plus, any place near the sea is awesome according to me.
 
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P

purge

Hall of Fame
niff said:
Hahah I guess it's all relative ... in the UK the cost of train travel is just spiralling, and plus we don't have any of the all day travel tickets etc on normal train lines. I noticed German advanced fares seem lower than over here too, more generous.
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i dont know the prices in the UK. but train travel has become extremely expensive here over the last decade or so. at least compared to how it used to stack up against other means of transportation. when flying is actually cheaper than taking the train for pretty much any city to city travel then something is seriously wrong. the only thing thats still good is in fact the special group/day/weekend whatever tickets but only if you manage to abuse them to the max -.-
 
Rock Strongo

Rock Strongo

Legend
purge said:
especially if you bring some alcohol haha since its so ridiculously expensive up there
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Thankfully I live 20 minutes from Denmark and the prices are MUCH lower there!

Though... the legal age for importing is 20... That's the advantage of having a big sister I guess!
 
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