Roger Brennwald takes stock: “The new era has not yet fully reached the audience”
Tournament director Roger Brennwald said at his annual press conference that he was more than satisfied with the 2024 edition and that it wouldn’t be a big deal if the current world number 1 never came to Basel. The 78-year-old also explains why the Swiss Indoors still doesn’t have a title sponsor.
Roger Brennwald still has problems deciding on a finalist. But Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard is also a tongue twister.
Bild: Georgios Kefalas / Keystone
What do you think of the final match between Ben Shelton and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard?
Roger Brennwald: Nobody could have predicted this final. I can’t remember anyone serving as strongly in this tournament as Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard did this week. I have to admit that I can neither pronounce this name nor did I know it before this week. On the other side is Ben Shelton, the outstanding figure of the tournament so far. For me, his games against Arthur Fils and Andrej Rublev were the highlights of this year.
What do you think of the new competition from the Swiss Indoors, a show tournament that took place in Saudi Arabia the week before your tournament and attracted the world’s best to the desert with $15 million in prize money?
Competition actually stimulates business. Nevertheless, I want to emphasize that I am not a fan of exhibitions. We have been able to assert ourselves on the international stage again and again over the years. According to my latest information, this tournament will no longer take place. Nevertheless, Saudi Arabia took away our opportunity to sign a top-five player. We have to deal with that, Basel is not Wimbledon. We never claim to be the best. Our credo is to get the best out of our possibilities.
63,200 spectators came to the hall this year. Are you satisfied with a utilization rate of 86.7 percent?
Overall, we have a higher number of viewers compared to the last two years. We are once again taking a step forward. The hall is only sold out on the final Sunday, but on three days we were close to the maximum capacity of 8,100 spectators. The new era of Swiss Indoors has not yet fully reached the audience.
Compared to previous years, there are more tennis fans and fewer people who are “only” interested in the figureheads of the sport?
We organized a tournament for Swiss youth players in the run-up to the Swiss Indoors. The best regional players in the country took part. Henry Bernet, who won the tournament, received a wild card for qualification. Around this tournament we distributed 3000 entries to the community (club presidents, tennis teachers, interclub champions and others). This is a test run for us, but we see it as an investment to promote the tennis community.
Why hasn’t there been a title sponsor for fourteen years?
We had to give up our long-standing collaboration with Davidoff due to the advertising restrictions for tobacco producers contre cœur. Since then I have never looked for a title sponsor. This gives us two advantages: On the one hand, Swiss Indoors has developed into a brand, and all of our partners are more or less equal. Of course, a new title sponsor could attract many more partners. We can certainly talk about it in the future, but the topic is not a top priority for me.
Why does the rival tournament in Vienna pay more prize money than Basel?
I don’t understand why the ATP 500 tournaments pay different amounts of prize money. These things are unchangeable. Prize money is based on the history of a tournament and many other factors that I don’t understand. (Laughs.)
Roger Brennwald cannot understand why different amounts of prize money are paid out at the same tournament level.
Bild: Georgios Kefalas / KEYSTONE
How do you see the field of participants in Basel this year compared to that of the competing tournament in Vienna?
Vienna has made significant gains in the last year. When I found out in the spring that there was an exhibition tournament taking place in Saudi Arabia and that Medvedev and Zverev would be playing in Austria, I thought that we had to wrap up warmly. But today I can say that the plan worked out for us. We have provided numerous arguments that our strategy of engaging the “Next Gen” is working. We have never signed as many players before the tournament as this year. Shelton and Fils delivered, we also brought the defending champions in Auger-Aliassime and players in Tsitsipas and Rublew who promise sporting appeal to Basel. After Medvedev and Fritz’s cancellations, de Minaur is number two in Vienna and the score is at least balanced.
Will the world’s best continue to play in Basel in the future?
We are in a completely new era. The density in world tennis is enormous, arithmetic calculations are impossible. When we signed the players in March, there were still four athletes in the top ten, but by the tournament week there were only two. We always try to bring players to Basel who will explode in the next few years. That was already the case with Boris Becker and Jim Courier.
Will the tradition continue in the coming years that every world number one since 1974 will play in Basel?
Of course we are trying to bring Jannik Sinner to Basel. Still, I have to say that he cannot be compared to Connors, Borg, Becker, Sampras or Federer. So we won’t be left out of breath if Sinner never shows up in the St. Jakobshalle.
Will Stan Wawrinka also play in Basel next year?
When I last spoke to Wawrinka, it was said that he wanted to add another two years. In the meantime he wants to see what spring brings. But I don’t want to comment on his future plans, we don’t know more yet. Of course I hope that it will continue to be with us.
