The start of the Premier League season may be under two weeks away, but West Ham appear to be in relaxed mood as several players enjoyed a morning at the tennis in Austria.
With Manuel Pellegrini whisking his Hammers away to a training camp in Kitzbuhel this week, Marko Arnautovic, Michail Antonio and Adrian jumped at the opportunity to attend the nearby Austrian Open, which began on Tuesday.
Austrian tennis stars Dominic Thiem, who is top seed at the tournament, and Dennis Novak took time out of their busy schedules to partake in a quick game of foot tennis in front of delighted crowds before Arnautovic tried his hand at umpiring.
Antonio was then given a crash course in tennis, but appeared to be lobbed by one of his teachers. The 28-year-old was pictured stretching high for the ball as he moved into the net to win the point, but appeared to have little chance of reaching it.
The event would have proved a welcome break for the West Ham trio, who are busy putting in their final preparations for the Premier League season in the small Alpine town located east of Innsbruck.
Indeed, earlier in the day the players were pictured training in scenic surroundings with new signing Felipe Anderson finding the perfect antidote to the ongoing heatwave at the bottom of a bin full of ice water.
Temperatures hit a scorching 31 degrees Celsius on Wednesday afternoon, which may help to explain why Pellegrini had his men out on the training pitch early in the morning.
But there will be no respite for the players if the new manager has his way. Pellegrini insisted his team still have a lot of work to do if they are to be ready for their Premier League opener against Liverpool on August 12.
He said: 'We need to keep improving. We have ten days more work before we start the Premier League and there are a lot of players who are not 100 per cent.
'Tonight we played without Javier Hernandez, without Felipe Anderson, without Andriy Yarmolenko, without Cresswell, but these players are working more every day and they will be nearer to their normal performance. We need to work very hard these ten days.'
