Kevin Anderson and Kei Nishikori, Lucas Pouille and Philipp Kohlschreiber, who are competing at the Erste Bank Open 500, visited the Vienna State Opera on Monday.

Austria’s opera house, which employs more than 1,000 people, produces 50 to 60 operas per year and 10 ballet productions, including more than 350 performances.

Home hope Dominic Thiem, who is currently eighth in the ATP Race To London for a spot at the season finale, to be held at The O2 in London from 11-18 November, leads the ATP World Tour 500 field in Vienna. Seventh-placed Anderson and 10th-positioned Nishikori are also in contention for the three remaining London singles berths.

Kyle Edmund checked off another career accomplishment on Sunday in what’s been his finest season on the ATP World Tour. The 23-year-old Brit beat France’s Gael Monfils to win his maiden ATP World Tour title at the European Open in Antwerp. Edmund spoke with ATPWorldTour.com about the milestone:

How does it feel to be holding this trophy?
It’s a really nice feeling to get the win today. Looking at the overall picture, just lots of years of hard work and building up to this, to win a title on the professional level, on the ATP World Tour.

To finally do that is a really great feeling, something you always remember, looking back and winning your first title. So right now in the moment, it’s hard to just take it all in but over time it will give me a lot of confidence and belief.

Was this a goal you had as a junior growing up, to win an ATP World Tour title?
Yeah, it’s always a goal, even when you’re a youngster. But it’s just a dream at that point, and over the years, it’s building to make that into a reality, and you gain belief at different events and throughout the years, you have certain wins that give you belief and confidence that you can do it.

I’ve known for a while that my game is good enough to win a title. But it’s about doing it, producing… and I’m happy that’s happened today.

Watch Highlights: Emotional Edmund Earns First Title In Antwerp

How did you prepare for this final differently with your first final (l. to Andujar, Marrakech 2018) in mind?
I think that just helped me to learn from the environment and the feeling of being in a final. He beat me quite comfortably there. I knew it couldn’t go any worse, and it was not a great feeling to lose in the final comfortably.

That helps you for the next one, spurs you on and makes you even more determined to get it. So after going down in the first set (vs. Monfils), it was just about really about being determined and fighting to get the win. I knew the win wasn’t going to come easy after that; I knew if I was going to win it, I would really have to work for it.

You beat two former Top 10 players in the last two rounds in Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils. What did you do well to beat both players?
They’re both different matches. The Gasquet one, I felt in control from the start of the match and served very well. It was more straightforward but still a tough match.

But I think today at the start, [Monfils] came out firing a lot quicker than I did, which made it harder to turn around. But both obviously French players, and they’re very skillful and tough to beat, which most French players are, so you always know that, and it was no difference in my thoughts.

I was very happy to come through that in the semi-finals and the final, where the matches count the most and matter the most. To get over the line and win the title is a great feeling.

After the first-round loss at the US Open, you reached Beijing semi-finals, Shanghai quarter-finals. Would you consider this the best stretch of your season after your Australian Open semi-final run, or would you say it’s better than that?
As a stretch of tournaments, it’s been my most consistent for sure. There have been reasons why I’ve struggled after the Australian Open, just with physical concerns or issues basically. So it was always trying to get better from there and learning not to get physically down again.

As a stretch, this has been my best. I’ve had some good wins, some good tournaments.

ATP title. Grand Slam SF. British No. 1. At the end of the year, how’s that going to make you remember 2018?
It’s been my best year so far. I’ve done things that I’ve done for the first time, as in British No. 1, semi-finals at a Grand Slam, winning my first tour-level event. So that’s been really good for me to do that and then obviously the goal is to always improve on that. But you have to get going, you can’t just sprint straight away and expect these things to happen.

You have to almost get your first out of the way, and do it, rather than just thinking it will happen. So now that I’ve done a few of them I’m very pleased, and I think it’s going to help me in the future.

Now that you have the first title, what are your next goals?
It was always a big goal of mine to get the title… For sure, I’m close to the Top 10, so I know the goal is definitely Top 10. That’s a strong, tough goal. Top 10 just doesn’t happen overnight. You have to be consistent with your results, and that’s something I’m working towards… and of course winning more titles… and by doing this one I think that will help me massively.

Watch Hot Shot: Edmund Finishes SF With A Flourish In Antwerp 2018

You’ve done well on clay, hard. What would you say is your favourite surface now?
It’s a really tough one to say. I like playing on clay. As a junior I played on it a bit more than hard. With the ATP circuit you naturally get used to playing on hard and improve on hard because it’s probably 70 per cent of the year is played on hard courts… I enjoy playing on both (clay and hard). I’ve had my best results on hard, but for sure I like playing on clay.

Is there anyone you’d like to acknowledge who has helped you get to where you are in your career this year but also just generally speaking?
There are always lots of people who have helped over the years, even when I was 14, 15, at certain academies, who have sacrificed their time to help me, and it has improved me at that stage of my career.

For sure, my two coaches and my fitness trainer, they’ve been there the majority of the weeks so they’ve helped me a lot. Probably the most important would be your family because they have always been there and they always support you no matter what, with mum and dad and sister.

See Where Edmund Is In The ATP Race To London

There were times when I was 10, 11 years old where we would go for tennis sessions at 6:30 in the morning until 8, which meant getting up at like 5:30, and my mum would do that, take me to the courts. There’s lots of sacrifice that goes in and for sure, they’ll be very happy with my win today.

After the season, what will you do that you maybe haven’t had time to do lately?
For sure, I’ll go on holiday. I’ll do that for a little bit, just mentally it’s nice to get a break. Of course you need a physical break… But mentally it’s important, I feel for such a long year that we have as tennis players, to just get away from the courts and mentally get away from it.

I always have sport interests. Last year I think I did go to a Liverpool game so I might try that. I know I’m going to go to England vs. New Zealand for rugby. I’ve played rugby in school and watched it on TV but I’ve never actually been to an international test match in rugby so I’m pretty pumped to watch that. And apart from that there have been no plans. I try not to make plans in my off-season because generally you just want to chill out. But for sure I’ll go for a holiday.

Exactly 19 years ago, Roger Federer entered Brest, France, as a highly-touted teenager on the cusp of a big breakthrough. He would leave the tournament with his maiden – and lone – ATP Challenger Tour title.

This week, a group of #NextGenATP stars are looking to follow in Federer’s footsteps at the €106,000 event. And the stakes couldn’t be higher in the ATP Race To Milan, with three Next Gen ATP Finals contenders in action. At Nos. 8-10, Jaume Munar, Ugo Humbert and Michael Mmoh are all seeded in Brest and will be fighting for a coveted berth in Milan. They also feature as three of the five nominees for Newcomer of the Year, in the 2018 ATP World Tour Awards Presented by Moët & Chandon.

View Draw

Entering the week, Andrey Rublev (750 points) is in the driver’s seat for one of the two remaining qualifying berths, with Munar (641) one spot behind and looking to hold off the rest of the pack. The Spaniard is seeded second in Brest, but will face significant pressure with only 93 points separating him from Humbert (582) and Mmoh (548). With 110 points awarded to the champion, it will be a mad dash to the finish line.

“Munar has a lot of points, so it’s going to be tough to catch up to him,” Mmoh said after winning the title in Tiburon last month. “But you never know. The way I’m playing, it could happen.”

The Salle Arena hosts the Open Brest Credit Agricole

Each member of the trio has enjoyed great success on the ATP Challenger Tour this year, en route to Top 100 breakthroughs in the ATP Rankings. Munar could face fellow Mmoh in a blockbuster quarter-final laden with Milan implications, while Humbert looms in the top half of the draw. 

Mmoh would need to lift the trophy to have a shot at surpassing Munar and punch his ticket. Humbert must reach the final at the least. But, with top seed Julien Benneteau, defending champion Corentin Moutet and an in-form Lorenzo Sonego also featuring in the draw, nothing will come easy.

Stefanos Tsitsipas, Denis Shapovalov, Alex de Minaur, Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz have already qualified for the 21 & under season finale. The second edition of the tournament will be held at the Fiera Milano from 6-10 November 2018.

By The Numbers
(8) Munar: 21-year-old Spaniard lifted two trophies this year, prevailing in Prostejov, Czech Republic and Caltanissetta, Italy in June. He reached a career-high No. 79 in the ATP Rankings, having also advanced to his first ATP World Tour semi-final in Kitzbuhel.

(9) Humbert: 20-year-old Frenchman is the hottest player on the ATP Challenger Tour, posting a staggering 26-5 record since mid-July. He won titles on the hard courts of Segovia, Spain and Ortisei, Italy, while also claiming his first Grand Slam match win at the US Open and his first on the ATP World Tour in his hometown of Metz.

(10) Mmoh: 20-year-old American broke into the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings last month, after going back-to-back on home soil in Columbus and Tiburon. He is the only member of the trio with multiple ATP World Tour quarter-final appearances this year (Brisbane, Los Cabos).

Note: While the trio competes in Brest and Rublev looks to wrap up a berth in Vienna, two other players are still mathematically alive and competing at ATP World Tour 500 events. At the Erste Bank Open 500 in Vienna, 12th-placed Felix Auger-Aliassime received a main draw wild card and would need to reach the semi-finals. And at the Swiss Indoors in Basel, 19-year-old qualifier Alexei Popyrin must lift the trophy.