10. Break(ing) Point

ATP 500 Erste Bank Open 2021

Instagram → Your activity → Time spent

Usually: Daily average of 1h 24m with a time span between 55m to 2h each day.

Tournament week: Daily average of 3m with a time span between 1m to 5m each day.

An unusual way to describe weeks that pushed me out of my comfort zone with the speed of John Isner’s serve. But there was nothing ordinary about the job that showed me the intricacies of sports event planning.

In the span of two years, I climbed a bit. As in climbing the corporate ladder. From handing out flyers to volunteering at the accreditation office to being appointed as the Head of Accreditation for Austria’s biggest tennis tournament. It was quite a big jump from assisting with printing badges to being responsible for organizing credentials for over two thousand people.

Accreditation. A word I have uttered thousands of times. Letters I have written in that exact order hundreds of times. A job that made sleep a foreign concept and eating a tedious chore.

The Wiener Stadthalle, home of the Erste Bank Open, is a 16,000-seat maze. Hundreds of ways to get around the venue. Thousands of people working to make it an unforgettable experience. Have you ever thought about how photographers get to the court? Or how exhibitors navigate to the fan zone? And how tournament staff gain access to the backstage area? Yeah, me neither. Until Austria’s largest event centre became my second home and accreditation my middle name.

Accreditation badges serve as work IDs that grant access to all areas necessary to perform your duties. These tournament IDs are divided into a plethora of categories. Player Coach. Ball Kid. Catering. Chair Umpire. Organizing credentials for over two thousand people with multiple badge roles and individual access rights is like trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube blindfolded. Impossible. At least that was my impression the first time I worked through the whole accreditation process to ensure the safety and security of all participants and attendees.

Thinking about accreditations consumed my every waking second. Adjusting individual access rights consumed my every waking minute. Crossing things off my never-ending to-do list consumed my every waking hour. My sanity was hanging by a thread. Giving up never sounded sweeter to me, almost as sweet as the ice cream that was being sold in the fan zone.

Sport is a testament to the power of perseverance. And so, I persevered. That’s how I ended up staying in the tournament office alongside my supportive colleagues until two in the morning. Addressing issues. Adjusting individual access areas. Assessing credential requests. With a lighter heart and clearer mind, I proceeded to take everything day by day. Growth takes place outside of one’s comfort zone. Or in the Wiener Stadthalle. Sometimes both.

My first-ever job as Head of Accreditation ended with me reuniting with a friend whom I had neglected during the tournament. My bed.