The 8 participants for the already 28. The second edition of the H…
The 8 participants for the already 28. The 10th edition of the HTT-Tour finals, which will take place this coming Saturday, has been completed since Sunday evening. After the 2-time master’s winner Philipp Schneider confirmed his decision not to compete in the HTT season finale at UTC La Ville, and Mathias Wagner had to cancel his sails in the last 16 after a tough fight against Philipp Jahn, the elite starter field for the final showdown of the Hobby Tennis Tour was fixed. Led by season’s dominator Lukas Prüger, eight top-class riders tackle the fight for the last big season’s title and the master crown. A report by C. L.
The last two outstanding Masters tickets for the HTT season finale went to Serbia’s youngster Filip Markovic and HTT Wimbledon finalist Christoph Beutler on Sunday evening. Markovic benefited from Philipp Schneider’s quarter-final defeat in a duel with the leader Vladimir Vukicevic, and Christoph Beutler benefited late in the evening from a bitter defeat of Mathias Wagner in the third direct duel with Philipp Jahn on the one hand, and from the announced loss of the 2-time master’s champion Philipp Schneider, on the other hand.
Thus, the elitist and top-class starter field stands, and it leaves nothing to be desired in terms of quality. With the six-time season’s winner and HTT French Open Champion Lukas Prüger, who will take first place in the HTT computer rankings tomorrow Wednesday for the first time in his career, the season’s dominator will lead the Top 8 into the most important and prestigious event of the tennis year at UTC La Ville. With title defender and HTT-wimbledon winner Vladimir Vukicevic and reigning HTT-US-Open winner Patrick Wiesmühler, Prüger has his toughest opponents right at his back. But reducing the title question to the top 3 would be a fatal mistake. Mathias Wolf, a November HTT-500 finalist still in action this evening, will be making his masters debut as the new number four, and will be just as noteworthy as last year’s Styrian finalist Alexander Schager and November Masters Series 1000 winner Kevin Köck, who will be the 6th best in the HTT Entry List, which will be released tomorrow, and his absolute career-high-R As mentioned above, Filip Markovic and Christoph Beutler will complete the field with their third HTT tour finals in a row.
There were also two changes in the doubles competition on the last tournament weekend before the start of the HTT Tour finals. Due to injury the couples Danzer-Weissmann and Ye-Curupis have to cancel their Masters debut. The tournament will not suffer any loss of quality, however, as Jaros-Markovic and Beutler-Trinko will provide a high-quality replacement. The field is led by the two-time season’s Grand Slam winners, the title holders and the number 1 duo Patrick Dobesch and Michael Posch, who could be the first pairing since Andreas Harbarth/Stefan Rieger in 2009/2010 to ensure a successful title defence. With Krawcewicz curly head, Vukicevic-Duric and Beutler-Trinko, however, last year’s winners have plenty of serious competition to fight. The other four teams can enjoy the role of the outsiders, however, and may also take advantage of the “no ad” and “deciding point” modes of play that have been in use since 2005. Strasser-Peithner, Joksch-Wagner. Jaros-Markovic and Pfeifer-Schischlik, a not to be underestimated quartet.