With Lukas Prüger and Kevin Köck, the HTT-Erste Bank Open 500 once again had two hobbies in the final…
With Lukas Prüger and Kevin Köck, two amateur players were once again able to experience the unique ATP flair of the HTT-Erste Bank Open 500 in the final of the biggest Austrian ATP event. After only 46 minutes, season’s dominator Lukas Prüger had won the duel with Kevin Köck, who was last in strong form, 6:0,6:3 and thus won the 27th place. Individual victory in series and the 6. Tournament victory in a row. What the two protagonists of the final day at the HTT-Erste Bank Open had to say at the final press conference afterwards, is summarized below by C. L.
The primary goal of these days was to reach the final in the Wiener Stadthalle. Because as a hobby player, you can never enjoy this scenery in your life. Of course, the fact that it worked out with a victory in the final is unlikely to be nice. I’m just in the shape of my life. I’ve made a huge step forward in my tennis in the last few months, and if you play like that and win so much, it’s a lot of fun,”says Prüger, who didn’t come out of raving about the match on the Next Gen Court even hours after his big triumph,” It’s of course something completely different than playing in La Ville on any court. With the ball children, the line judges and the referee you feel like a professional. But I must also admit that I slept badly the night before the final. But I got up with a fat grin on my face “.
I’m really happy with my performance in the final today. I played very solidly from the beginning of the baseline, except maybe from the first two games, where we both acted very nervously. But then things went extremely well. The only annoying thing today was my many double faults. Kevin didn’t play his best tennis today, but it was not easy to concentrate after the first set and the 6:0. If he had confirmed his early 1-0 break, the match might have been different,”says the 19-year-old, who has now been unbeaten with 6 titles en suite since 27 matches,” For me, this series is already very valuable from a sporting point of view. Because I know that I can achieve consistently good results at a high level. If you don’t play your best tennis, you won’t normally win a tournament on the Hobby Tennis Tour. That gives me a lot of confidence. Especially when I think back to the beginning of the year, when I never got past the quarter-finals in the first four tournaments. The quality and density on the HTT are sometimes worse than in some ÖTV tournaments, where you have one or two players standing above all other participants, but there is never such a density behind it as here,”says the seasonal dominator of Schwechater TC, who also referred to the topic number 1 and to a possible start at the HTT’s Next Gen Finals.
“I think the race for the number 1 looks pretty good. With my victory in the Stadthalle, I’m back in the race in front of Vladi. My next start is at the November Master Series 1000 tournament, but I’m not worried. At the HTT-Australian-Open next January it looks very good with the number 1, because I have almost nothing to defend. Number one will undoubtedly be my next big target. On the subject of HTT Next Gen Finals, I can only say that this tournament with the current participants will be hardly any weaker than the big HTT Masters. The level of the players is incredibly high. My starting out will depend a lot on whether the Next Gen Finals will take place before or after the big Masters. If it’s before that, I’ll be more likely to pass, if it’s after that, I’ll most likely be at the start. I would have done a perfect job if I hadn’t,”laughs the new HTT-Erste Bank Open 500 Champ.
It’s disappointing that I did such a great job in the final of the HTT-Erste Bank Open 500. The tournament was, however, satisfactory in itself. It’s a real joy to have made it into the final round here. It was a great feeling to play here at the Next Gen Court. I am not very disappointed, although I would have liked to have a performance like in the preliminary rounds. In such a final you can be nervous and you can lose it. Of course, the atmosphere was impressive, but the main reason for my defeat today was probably the fact that I played against the best HTT player of the day. It’s damn hard to beat him. He played very well, I didn’t, and that’s why it turned out relatively smoothly,”says the WAT highway hero.
Basically, both Masters tournaments do not sound bad, but I can’t answer the question where I would like to play or where I’d like to play in case of qualifying. I’ll let that come to me. I’m going to play the remaining three major tournaments and see how it turns out. When I come to the great Masters, I will certainly play this one. If I don’t make it, I’m not sure I’m playing the Next Gen Finals yet,”Kevin Köck emphasized.