Lukas Prüger first-time HTT-First Bank Open 500 Champion

Season’s dominator Lukas Prüger has also won the 4th place with 95 players. Edition of the H…

Season’s dominator Lukas Prüger has also won the 4th place with 95 players. After the HTT-French Open and the 1000 Euro OTC Open, the third prestigious tournament victory this year was achieved after the HTT-French Open and the 1000 Euro OTC Open. The young star from Schwechater TC, who was seeded number 2, had a one-sided final at the Next Gen Court of the Vienna Stadthalle against Kevin Köck, who last played in great form, and declassified the WAT Landstrasse star ranked 7th in only 46 minutes with a score of 6:0 and 6:3. Prüger celebrated his sixth tournament win in a row, has been unbeaten for 27 matches and on top of it, at the last Masters Series 1000 tournament of the year from 10. till 14. November at the UTC La Ville. A report by C. L.

The high-calibre winner list of the HTT-Erste Bank Open 500 in Vienna’s Stadthalle has been enriched by a prominent name. After Dominik Negrin as the first-ever winner in 2014, the two international champions Damian Roman from Romania (2015) and last year’s winner Gabriel Jovanovic from Serbia, Lukas Prüger has crowned the exceptional figure of the 109 tournaments of the 2017 season with his sixth title win this year and the eighth HTT tournament victory in his career as the new king of the city halls. The 19-year-old is currently rushing from success to success with the confidence of six undefeated months, and is gaining more and more respect and recognition for the amazed competition.”The currently best player at the HTT has won one of the biggest tournaments in Austria’s tennis amateur sport,” said the defeated Kevin Köck, who also paid tribute to his conqueror at the final press conference in Vienna’s Stadthalle on the evening of the final day. And justifiably so, because hours earlier, the top performer Köck at the Next Gen Court in Vienna’s Stadthalle did not have the slightest chance of winning his third season finale after his first win in 2017.

Referee, line judge, Balkinder, spectator, it was once again this unique atmosphere that only Herwig Straka’s Erste Bank Open 500 organisation team creates, and the hobby players of this country convey the flair of the big wide ATP world in a great way. A sizzling atmosphere that triggers huge enthusiasm everywhere, but has also become a major handicap for many finalists in the past. None of the HTT stars who have played in the four previous finals were able to escape the thrilling atmosphere at the Next Gen Court, all captivated by the feeling of being able to compete in the Stadthalle, and far from being able to get their logical nervousness under control. Kevin Köck, who reached the quarter-finals of an HTT tournament for the seventh time in a row at the HTT-Erste Bank Open 500, did so without losing a set on his way to the final. In the final itself, however, Köck didn’t bring a leg on the newly laid rebound Ace rubber at the Next Gen Court, and after 40 unforced errors in a three-quarters of an hour, he slips into a bad final debacle.

Punchman dominated, Köck paused, that’s the very brief summary of a first set that lasted just 16 minutes, in which Köck produced 16 mistakes with only two wins scored, and made it not too difficult for his opponent. Both players did not exactly contribute to the general increase in level at the beginning of the second round. Prüger gave up his service for the first time in the course of this finale, with three double faults in a row and a total of four of these annoying “doubles” in the opening game of the second set. When Köck scored a 1-0 win, Köck’s serve was also a double strike in the net, the amazed visitors to the Next Gen Court had experienced five double errors in series and the prompt re-break Prügers. Ten evenly matched minutes followed, with three games won by the players, before Köck finally hoisted himself onto the loser’s road with three slight mistakes. Köck couldn’t find his way back to his powerful play of the preliminary rounds and to this final, not even after another break to 3-4, while Prüger, with 26 consecutive HTT matches won in a row, went into the final sprint. Exactly one minute after 1 p. m. Köck had provoked a last outcry of the Line-judge-crew with a backhand error, and with it, Prüger cheered with 6:0,6:3 over the 27th minute. Individual win in series and the sixth consecutive tournament win in uninterrupted order in 2017.

With the triumph fixed at the Next Gen Court, however, Lukas Prüger’s tennis day in the Vienna Stadthalle was far from over. After the award ceremony and a highly interesting backstage tour, the Erste Bank Open invited guests to the royal gala dinner of HTT-Erste Bank Open Champions in the elitist and festively uncovered Business Club. Ceviche of butterfish with passion fruit and Sakura cress as starter, corn breasts with peanut butter sauce, glazed ginger-pak choi and fried sesame rice as main course and the delicious dessert in the form of mango jelly with coconut sauce dined the HTT stars of the very finest. The time until the press conference was spent with canapés prepared with roast beef with paprika and sauce, remoulade smoked salmon with dill and lemon as well as brie with fig and nut. The physical well-being of the HTT aces was therefore taken care of before the big HTT-Erste Bank Open 500 Champion got his big appearance at the Centercourt between the second and third set of the first round match of the German number 1 of the Erste Bank Open 500 Alexander Zverev, and before full hall was congratulated and interviewed by moderator Stefan Steinacher for his success.