Tennis
Red Bull Bassline: The tie-break tennis tournament!
Red Bull Bassline is a unique tie-break tennis tournament – a revolution the sport needs. Here’s everything you need to know about the tournament ahead of another edition in Vienna in October.
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What's it all about, we hear you ask? Simple. Red Bull Bassline is a knock-out tournament played over a novel best-of-three tie-break format. With some of the world's best players signed up to compete in the rapid-fire tournament that offers unique fan engagement and a throbbing musical backbeat that the sport has never witnessed before, Red Bull Baseline is what Greek tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas rightly calls "a breath of fresh air" for tennis.
Read on to get a better idea from Tsitsipas of what to expect from Red Bull Bassline.
01
The format
This is most definitely not a traditional two-week tournament tennis, Red Bull Bassline is a rapid-fire, best-of-three tie-break format where each match can last anything from 10 to 25 minutes. For this edition in Vienna, the first athlete to five points in a tie-break wins the tie-break.
There will be six players taking part. They will be divided into two groups of three players – Group Red and Group Blue. Each player in the group will play each other in a round robin format. The player that ranks first in each group after the group games is declared the group winner. The winner of each group then play each other in the final.
Red Bull Bassline features short and intense battles where every point will count, and that's just how Tsitsipas planned it.
"In today's world, everything is moving really fast, there are a lot of distractions and everything tends to be faster, quicker. The idea for Bassline stemmed from there, making tennis much more exciting, with more energy and more intensity put into every single point," explains Tsitsipas.
"Everyone‘s going at it 100 percent, each one displaying their best game. But we also want everyone to have a huge smile on their face; we want players to have fun while they’re out there doing what they do best."
1 min
What is Red Bull Bassline?
Here's how the rules and format work at the high-energy tennis tournament that's Red Bull Bassline.
02
New challenge: umpires out
You can't shake up tennis tournaments if the umpire in the high chair is still there calling the shots, so Red Bull Bassline removes the umpire and so you'll see the unique sight of a professional match taking place without a single chair umpire or line judge officiating.
All the calls are made by the line assistant systems and the onus will be on the players to sort out any disputes between them, which certainly makes things very interesting! If not the MC hosting the event will make sure everything gets cleared up.
"Basically, we have tennis unfiltered – everyone can express themselves, everyone can get angry and fully be themselves on the court," Tsitsipas says.
From the players on down, everyone's invited to bring the noise
© Matthias Heschl/Red Bull Content Pool
I'd like to see a show on court more and the fans more involved in the game
03
Music on court
"Quiet please..." No thanks. That time-honoured instruction from umpires to the crowd at tournaments has no place at Red Bull Bassline, where the on-court drama will be accompanied by a pumping soundtrack. And we're not just between points, but even while the players are going back and forth in thrilling rallies.
"I like to see a show on court more – music being played and the fans much more involved in the game than they already are," Tsitsipas says. “That's going to bring new life into the sport.”
What sort of music? "Well, the choice is unlimited. Whatever has people hyped, gives a good vibe and a good atmosphere. I'm not sure about heavy metal, but definitely something that’s going to add to the energy and atmosphere, and enhance the tennis. The dream scenario is to have the fans immersed in the game, to be part of the game.”
A DJ sets the energy on and off court with his beats
© Matthias Heschl/Red Bull Content Pool
04
Players
There's always a push to get as many young up-and-coming players competing in Red Bull Bassline.
Tsitsipas happily admits that Red Bull Bassline is unashamedly aimed at a youthful audience. "This new dynamic gives it a new perspective. I think it’s good for the younger generation of fans and people involved in tennis who are 26 and younger," he says.
The vibe at Red Bull Bassline is more relaxed than normal tennis tournos
© Matthias Heschl/Red Bull Content Pool
05
New technology
As part of the ambition to make tennis relevant to a new audience, Red Bull Bassline employs new on-court technology so that fans can engage with their heroes like never before.
If, for instance, you want to get a feel for the stress levels of a player at match point down, spectators will be able to find out from the results of a heart monitor they wear, the results of which will be shown on LED walls behind the baseline.
Who will face off against each other in Red Bull Bassline 2023
© Matthias Heschl/Red Bull Content Pool
According to Tsitsipas: "There’s going to be energy, there’s music and there’s a whole lot of vibrancy put into Red Bull Bassline, which makes it a breath of fresh air. It's revolutionising tennis, I would say, bringing it to another dimension."
06
Previous winners
Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz took the win in Vienna in the first edition in October 2021, aged just 18. He's since gone on to sensationally win the 2022 US Open. The second edition in Vienna last October saw Karen Khachanov claim victory after defeating Grigor Dimitrov in the final.
Earlier in 2023 in April, the first Red Bull Bassline to take place away from Vienna was held in Madrid, Spain, at the Arantxa Sánchez Vicario Stadium, ahead of the ATP Tour's Masters 1000 Mutua Madrid Open tournament. Andrey Rublev won this Madrid edition of Red Bull Bassline after getting the better of Norway’s Casper Rudd in the final.
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Casper Ruud vs Andrey Rublev
Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev go head to head in the final of Red Bull Bassline 2023.
With Red Bull Bassline, there's an excellent chance you could see a future major winner in action before they become a household name as we've seen with Alcaraz.
Watch a recap of the 2022 tournament in Vienna in the video below:
Finals
This one-night tennis tournament features elite players and is set against a throbbing musical backbeat.
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