US Open Day 7: Daniel Koellerer Entertains The Crowd on Grandstand

At the US Open, the New York fans have always taken a liking to the more unique characters of the tour. This was the first time the crowd were introduced to Daniel Koellerer, the Austrian whose antics have become well-known even at the challenger level to the point of earning him a suspension at one point, and players once passing around a petition to have him banned off the tour.

Despite all the negative press surrounding him, the above video clip of his match against Juan Martin Del Potro yesterday shows that Koellerer can actually be quite charismatic, and the crowd loved every minute of it, as did Koellerer himself. What I particularly like is that Koellerer didn't only make a sideshow out of it, he played with passion. Look at how energetic and determined he chases down every ball, and how he lives off every point he wins or loses, disregarding that he doesn't have much chance of winning this match. He plays with an amazing energy that looks impossible to keep up, yet he does because of the pure adrenaline running through his veins.

The above video clip is worth checking out for Koellerer's amazing dive volley lob that he hits 15-0 down, not to mention the entertaining celebration afterwards.

Another highlight of the match (see below) is Koellerer's hilarious reaction to receiving a lucky net cord in his favour, doing the complete opposite to what you'd expect from a typical player, jumping up and down in joy like he had just won the tournament then kissing the net. The most amusing part was that the net cord had no bearing on the match, and never looked like it was going to, occurring at the least important of stages on 40-0 down on Del Potro's serve.



I would imagine that on the challenger tour, his on-court celebrations and antics would look like obvious attempts to distract his opponents, with which it could have easily had the same effect here but in this match, his celebrations were like crowd pleasers. It's obvious that he's a showman and he loves the spotlight, and he looked like he was having so much fun, that it was almost contagious watching it.