New Exhibition Tournament Sees Old Pros Returning and a Former US Open Champion in Finals
The world of exhibition tennis continues to grow and flourish in the off-season, seeing even brand-new tournaments pop up. The Ischgl Trophy in Ischl, Austria, is having its first run over a period of four days. Indoors and surrounded by snowy mountains, the competition offers many fun side events, but the most exciting part of all is the competitors. A handful of retired and well-loved athletes are featured and competing against each other in a knockout format. Tommy Haas, Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, Feliciano Lopez, and 2020 US Open Champion, Dominic Thiem of Austria, are just some of the names promising top-tier entertainment and competition.
Brief History
Thiem, who saw his last match not too long ago in 2024 in New York, saw a sad end to his career from a longstanding wrist injury. Frenchman Tsonga is a bit more well rested than the Austrian, retiring in 2022, but stood waiting for him in the semi-finals of the Maiden Tournament. Tsonga, who reached a career high fifth ranking, and in the era dominated by the big three in their youth, leads the official tour head-to-head between them, 2-1. Thiem reached a career-high third ranking, similarly in a stormy, vicious competitive time on tour.
Different Challenges for Each
Tsonga’s build and six-foot-two hulking figure always made him a force to be reckoned with, and a few years of retirement have changed it none. The tournament is played indoors, which is only a huge help to his game, his heavy and excellently placed serves striking true without wind interference. His blinding one-two punch shot strategy and net-approaches benefit from it well, doubly so in his favor, as he’s not found any more love for movement in his time off; age and inactivity surely culprits. The Frenchman could attribute his errors to rustiness and lack of play; the multiple easy groundstroke misses, slow reaction time, and general foot heaviness all pointed towards it. However, as someone who grew up screaming at him through the TV, that reason is maybe half; a lack of consistency was his main downfall.
Theim’s work was significantly less than his opponent’s insistent habit of gifting him unforced errors without much fight. All the former Grand Slam champ often did was simply brace himself and return the bombs flying at him whenever he could, only for Tsonga to use his dangerous groundstrokes as a weapon against himself, the same issue of consistency that plagued him in his prime haunting him even here. Though it’s the holidays and a time of giving, freely and unnecessarily gifting away easy points when you aren’t as quick or accurate as you once were is not a favorable formula. The Frenchman caught himself in a loop, playing one or two long points before falling back into immediate errors for multiple points. Thiem’s main challenges were ensuring to bounce back the ballistics coming at him, and wrangling the consistency error that all single-handed backhanders seemingly have to deal with.
How Thiem Scraped the Win
The two old-timers traded blows all the way to the end, each benefiting from the other’s errors. Both wielded their service games convincingly, each their last stand to hold the other back and maintain some form of control, as rallies. They went the absolute distance, Tsonga saving match points before finally turning it towards the tie-breaker. Splitting the score all the way down to 9-9, Tsonga is still surviving his wild unforced errors, and Thiem is still unable to respond to the Frenchman’s serves. Though both saved a fair number of match points, the Austrian persevered through rallies and came out on top, winning with a final score of 12-10. He’ll meet German Tommy Haas in the final.
