Intrum Stockholm Open 2017, a success in retrospective

A new exiting tennis year dawns and it’s time for a brief summary of 2017.

Intrum Stockholm Open 2017 was a huge success both on court and off-court.

The new title sponsor Intrum, coordinated the launch of its new company name and brand platform with the announcement of nameing the oldest indoor tournament on the ATP Tour. The breaking news got massive media coverage not only in the sport pages but also in Dagens Industri, Swedens leading business publication and a long-time media partner of the tournamnet.

Speaking of media partners. Dagens Industri and Expressen, both under the corporate umbrella of Bonnier News, undertook a great commitment enhancing the onsite coverage of the tournament. The Di/Expressen TV-studio quickly became the hot spot in the arena where corporate executives, ministers of the Swedish government as well as tennis celebrities were interviewed. This new on-site media venture helped create valuable PR for the sponsors and significantly increased the media coverage of Intrum Stockholm Open.

What makes a winner? That’s a very good question. It was also the headline of Intrum Stockholm Opens new in-house seminar. Together with Mr Peter Wallin, former GM of the Swedish National Hockey Team, Intrum Stockholm Open invited 600 people, partners with guests, to a memorable afternoon. On stage Peter Wallin drilled on the subject “what makes a winner” together with former world No 1 Mats Willander, former world No 2 Magnus Norman and two CEO:s from publicly listed companies on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. A very interesting and appreciated experience which will live on over 2018.

Comeback of the year was Hawkeye, thanks’ to the presenting partner Unibet. After a pause in 2016, the high-speed camera technology was back in the Royal Tennis Hall assisting the linesmen to the benefit of both players and audience. There were in total 153 challenges and the linesmen were correct in 76 % of them.

38.100 visitors over the week (increase from 2016) were delighted and rated the over-all experience at Intrum Stockholm Open 4,3 on a 5-grade scale. The quality of the entry list scored slightly above, 4,4.

The high grade of the on-court performance came as no surprise. With names like Juan Martin del Potro, Grigor Dimitrov, Kevin Anderson, Jack Sock and Fabio Fognini Stockholm outshone the tournaments running the same week. But most important, they did put on a fantastic performance and a great show. All 8 seeded players reached the quarterfinal round. And even though Dimitrov fell short against del Potro in the final, the Bulgarian did hint of what was to come in London a few weeks later. There, in the ATP Nitto Finals Dimitrov won his to date biggest title.

The warm feelings between Intrum Stockholm Open and the ATP Tour players is mutual. Last year the players voted Stockholm as the Tournament of the Year.

Now we’re hoping for the same appreciation 2017 and a great tournament 2018.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year,

Intrum Stockholm Open and Lagardère Sports