06.06.2013 18:40:08 | How does Petra Langrova, Tournament Director, evaluate the first half of the UniCredit Czech Open tournament? “We've been dealing with bad weather this year like never before in the tournament’s history. Yet still, we managed to organize all matches in time, according to the schedule. Of course, the roofed Center Court of AGROFERT Arena was a great help this year. Sometimes, we had to play late in the evening but, like I said, we've managed everything in time, all scheduled matches have been played. What I really appreciate is this year's audience. The Czech players could really enjoy the home environment in Prostejov, the Center Court was crowded even in the morning. I’m really glad that four Czechs made it to the quarterfinals and two to the semis.”
What matches did the tournament director enjoy? “Considering the bad weather and owing the to the fact that the players had to play on the Centre Court, I was able to see more matches than in the last years. What really surprised me this year was how even the men’s tennis has become. For example, the match of Hajek against Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ranking about 280th in ATP, I’d never seen Hajek’s opponent before and he played fantastic tennis here in Prostejov. Or Gabashvili, who’s ranking 59th, also showed an excellent performance against Florian Mayer and later against Jan Hajek in the quarterfinals. Last but not least, I should also mention Peter Golowczyk. We are going to hear those names more often very soon. In addition to the seeded players, our tournament also has a very strong field of participants. We didn’t expect many of those advance to the final rounds, but they asked for their chance. They may rank outside the top hundred, but they can play incredible tennis.”
How does Petra Langrova evaluate Jiri Vesely’s performance? “He’s advanced to the semis over Lukas Rosol. But I’d like to mention his match in the second round with Jack Sock. He’s a great hope of America and a few seconds after the match a received a message from Ivan Lendl in which congratulated us on our success. Sock is considered a very promising player in America and after Jiri managed to beat him, which really is considered a great achievement. Jiri’s draw has been very hard in Prostejov, but he has so far coped with it very well.”
