The Erste Bank Open is a professional tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. Originally an event of the Grand Prix tennis circuit (1974–1989). It is currently part of the ATP World Tour 250 series of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) World Tour. It is held annually at the Wiener Stadthalle, in Vienna, Austria, since 1974.

The event was first known as the Stadthalle Open, then as the Fischer-Grand Prix from 1976 to 1985, as the CA-TennisTrophy from 1986 to 2003, as the BA-CA-TennisTrophy from 2004 to 2007 and as the Bank Austria TennisTrophy from 2008 to 2010, before being renamed to Erste Bank Open in 2011.

Horst Skoff (August 22, 1968 – June 7, 2008) was a professional tennis player from Austria.

Skoff was born in Klagenfurt, Austria, and turned professional in 1985. He won his first top-level singles title in 1988 at Athens. Over the course of his career he won four top-level singles titles and two tour doubles titles. His career-high rankings were World Number 18 in singles and World Number 70 in doubles. His career prize-money totalled US$1,651,858.

Skoff played on Austria's Davis Cup team for nine years, compiling a 22-17 record. He helped the team reach the World Group semi-finals in 1990. Memorable Davis Cup rubbers which Skoff was involved in include a 6–7(5), 7–6(7), 1–6, 6–4, 9–7 win over Mats Wilander in the 1989 quarter-final; and a 6–3, 7–6(4), 4–6, 4–6, 3–6 loss to Michael Chang in the 1990 semi-final.

Skoff retired from the professional tour in 1995. He died on June 7, 2008 in Hamburg, Germany, following a heart attack. He was 39.

Thomas Muster (born 2 October 1967 in Leibnitz, Styria) is a former world no. 1 tennis player from Austria. One of the world's leading clay court players in the 1990s, Muster won the 1995 French Open and at his peak was known as "The King of Clay." In addition, he won eight Masters 1000 series titles, placing him joint sixth on the all-time list. Muster is one of only three players to win Masters titles on three different surfaces (clay, carpet, and hard court).

Muster first came to prominence when he reached the final of the French Open junior tournament and the Orange Bowl juniors tournament in 1985. He turned professional later that year and won his first tour title at Hilversum, (Netherlands) in 1986.

In 1988, Muster reached six tour finals, winning four of them. He finished the year ranked in the world's top 20 for the first time.

Early in 1989, Muster became the first Austrian to reach the semifinals of the Australian Open and, shortly after that, the first Austrian to be ranked in the world's top 10. In March, he defeated Yannick Noah in the semifinals of the Lipton International Players Championships in Key Biscayne, Florida (now known as the Sony Ericsson Open) to set up a final match with world no. 1 Ivan Lendl. But in the hours that followed that semifinal victory, Muster was struck by a drunk driver, severing ligaments in his left knee and forcing him to default the final. He flew back to Vienna to undergo surgery. With the aid of a special chair designed to allow him to practice hitting balls while recovering from knee surgery, Muster returned to competitive tennis just six months later.

Jürgen Melzer (born 22 May 1981 in Vienna) is an Austrian tennis player. He reached a career-high ranking of World No. 8 on 18 April 2011, and a doubles ranking of World No. 6 on 13 September 2010. He is the only current player on the ATP Tour to be ranked in the top 10 in both singles and doubles. He is a left-handed tennis player, but is right-handed in everyday life. He has a younger brother, Gerald Melzer, with whom he has played doubles in several tournaments.

In 1999, he won the boys' singles event at Wimbledon. For many years, he was known as one of the best players on the tour not to have progressed past the third round of a Grand Slam event. He ended this streak when he reached the semifinals of the French Open in 2010. He has also had success in doubles, winning the mens doubles event at Wimbledon in 2010 and the US Open in 2011 with Philipp Petzschner, as well as the mixed doubles event at Wimbledon in 2011 with Iveta Benešová.

He is endorsed by Adidas and Dunlop Sport. Melzer is currently coached by Joakim Nystrom.

Novak Djokovic (Serbian: Новак Ђоковић or Novak Đoković; pronounced [nɔ̂ʋaːk dʑɔ̂ːkɔʋitɕ] ( listen); born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player who has been ranked World No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) since 4 July 2011. He has won five Grand Slam singles titles: the 2008, 2011 and 2012 Australian Open, the 2011 Wimbledon Championships, and the 2011 US Open. By winning three Majors in 2011, Djokovic became the sixth male player in the open era to win three Majors in a calendar year.

He is the first male player representing Serbia to win a Major singles title and the youngest player in the open era to have reached the semifinals of all four Grand Slam events, separately and consecutively. Amongst other titles, he won the Tennis Masters Cup in 2008 and was on the team which won the 2010 Davis Cup. He also won the bronze medal in singles at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. He has won 11 Masters 1000 series titles placing him joint fourth on the all time list. Djokovic has quickly moved up in the rankings of history. Tennis Channel ranked him number 40 , and former player Pat Cash said he is one of the greatest ever.