ATP Gstaad 2018 Live Stream: J. Safra Sarasin Swiss Open tennis live from Gstaad

One last week of clay-court tennis on the ATP World Tour is highlighted by the Swiss Open Gstaad as top men’s players return to the Swiss Alps.

Played amidst the spectacular, soaring surroundings of the Swiss Alps, the Swiss Open Gstaad is a 250-level ATP World Tour event held on red clay courts. One of three 250-level events held on outdoor European clay in late July, ATP Gstaad sees some of the ATP World Tour’s finest players return on a yearly basis, seizing the opportunity to shine on clay one last time for the season before the tennis tour moves on to the hard courts of the USA and Asia.

The history of the Swiss Open Gstaad dates back to 1915, when the first edition of the tournament was held on the tennis courts of the Hotel Gstaad Palace with Victor de Cousbach capturing the title. The oldest tennis tournament in Switzerland, ATP Gstaad has since moved to its current location in the centre of the resort village of Gstaad and continues to evolve, with a WTA Tour event held the week before. 

Among the all-time greats to have captured the Swiss Open Gstaad title are five-time winner Roy Emerson (1960-1, 1966-7, 1969), Rod Laver (1962), legendary Italian Davis Cup player Nicola Pietrangeli (1963), Ilie Nastase (1973), Guillermo Vilas (1974, 1978) and Stefan Edberg (1986). Spanish players established a period of dominance at the event in the 1990s, with Emilio Sanchez, Sergi Bruguera, Albert Costa, Felix Mantilla and Alex Correta winning all but two titles between 1991 and 2002 (Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Jiri Novak were the only players to interrupt the Spanish hegemony during this time). 

The modern era of the Swiss Open Gstaad began in 2004 when Roger Federer captured the title after finishing runner-up to Novak in 2003. Federer was gifted a cow in a special homecoming ceremony in Gstaad in 2003 after winning his first Wimbledon title, and made a long-awaited return to the tournament in 2013 when he was again gifted a cow. Swiss star Stan Wawrinka made the final in 2005.

In recent years the Swiss Open Gstaad has crowned an eclectic mix of champions, including Gaston Gaudio (2005), Richard Gasquet (2006), Thomaz Bellucci (2009 and 2012), Nicolas Almagro (2010), Mikhail Youzhny (2013) and Pablo Andujar (2014). In 2015, rising Austrian star Dominic Thiem won his third ATP World Tour clay-court title of the season in Gstaad when he defeated Belgium’s David Goffin in the final. Spanish veteran Feliciano Lopez won the fifth title of his career in Gstaad in 2016, conquering Robin Haase in straight sets in the final, while mercurial Italian, Fabio Fognini.