HTT-Wimbledon finalist Christoph Beutler is over the masters debut with an arduous three-movement success…
HTT Wimbledon finalist Christoph Beutler has started into his third HTT tour finals with a painstaking three-movement victory over master debutant Matthias Wolf. The runners-up tenth from Marswiese did not find his match until the second set of his eighth career match at the Tour Finals level and was able to avoid a false start at the end after 1:26 hours of play time with 2:6,6:2,6:2,6:2. As such, Matthias Wolf only has to consider his debut appearance as part of the HTT season finale at UTC La Ville in terms of results. The 29-year-old master’s newcomer from the SKVS Flötzersteig had a lot more to offer than his later conqueror for a long time, and so the hope of the July-HTT-500-Champion to win a place in the semi-finals in spite of his defeat at the start was justified. A report by C. L.
33 minutes, 53 minutes, 44 minutes – that was the result of the respective seasons of the three matches that the second matchday of the HTT Tour Finals 2017 before the final night session between Matthias Wolf and Christoph Beutler had to offer yesterday, Sunday. The HTT stars were stingy with tennis at the Centercourt, and there would have been a lot of things to do, and the “Finals at the Altmansdorfer Ast” would have seen a new record for the shortest tournament day in Masters history. After all, only 36 minutes were played in the second singles of Group A, when Matthias Wolf, who was seated at number 4, prepared for serve at 6:2,2:0 and 40:30. At this point in time, no one could have guessed that Beutler’s courageous net attack with a perfectly transformed volley would bring about the turnaround in this match, which has been clearly in favour of Wolf so far. For Wolf had apparently unpacked the correct match plan against a completely insecure and extremely erroneously playing bagler and in the first set, which lasted only 22 minutes, no problems at all to assert himself clearly with 6:2. The fans of the 29-year-old in the hall and at home before the live ticker also had the acclaimed debut victory at the HTT tour finals in mind, when the tennis sport we all loved so much was once again presented as “so unpredictable and curious”.
Wolf had taken the re-break after a completely accidental attempt at a stop ball. Actually no mishap, the second movement was only “on serve” again. But psychologically, the 29-year-old Viennese had missed the big opportunity to put Beutler with the possible 3:0 the proverbial knockout blow. 2:6,0:3, one can let oneself be carried away to the statement that Beutler would not have come back on this evening and in this match then. But would have, if and but not count, and so the 5 times HTT-Champion von der Marswiese started to catch up. Only 19 minutes after Wolf had missed the “secret match ball” for 6-2,3-0, six games in a row had gone to his opponent, who fixed the set equalization with 6-2, and had brought the HTT-Tour-Finals 2017 the first match of three sets.
DJ Seb, who is responsible for the music at the Centercourt, hit the nail on the head with the title “Rollercoaster by Helene Fischer” in the break of a few minutes before the decisive third round, and musically presented the first two sets of yesterday’s tour finals night session in two minutes. And this roller coaster ride went downhill for Wolf in the following only steeply, while Beutler rushed “breathlessly through the night”, and in the third set provided for quite clear conditions. The 33-year-old experienced player beat his opponent twice at the service and was ahead by 4:1, before Wolf was able to make another 2:4 with the game. 17:6 winners, 11:15 mistakes, Beutler was the better player in the decision, and after two more wins and after exactly one hour and twenty-six minutes he was the lucky 2:6,6:2,6:2 winner over Matthias Wolf.
“As I said in the on-court interview, everything was actually set up for me. I had a strong start in the first set, 2:0 in the second set and I already had the feeling that Christoph’s game was not going well today and that he may have already written off the game. I also knew that I should not make him strong, and that is exactly where the mistake happened to me. I made him strong again and lightly forgiven some chances. I have to work on him. The bottom line is that I lost the game, it’s not satisfactory, but the start into the Masters was still fun, and I’m already looking forward to the next two matches,”said Wolf, who attributed his opening defeat to Beutler’s performance improvement during the game,” He then put me under more pressure and didn’t give me so many unforced errors any more. This naturally made it harder and the momentum was on his side. Also Wolf as a Masters debutant was asked by moderator Mathias Wagner after his first impressions at the HTT-Tour-Finals:”Like everything else, this is great on the Hobby-Tennis-Tour. Playing here is a goal that you work towards all year round. I’m glad to be here. This is really great organized by La-Ville and HTT side. The Centercourt with its music and presentation is also cool. I had already hoped that Helene Fischer would get Christoph a little out of hand, and I did the first game. Maybe we still have to work on the playlist,”said Wolf, laughing at the many PK listeners.” Fun aside, this is a super event, it’s a great event, and it’s really an honour to be here, even with the live ticker, which raises the event to a completely different level,”Wolf praised.
What was the key to success, that’s really difficult to say,”is how the winner Christoph Beutler starts his analysis at the final press conference:” Because the first sentence went so clearly to Matthias, it might even be an advantage for me, because I came in better and could take the momentum with me. It has to be said that Matthias played almost faultlessly in the first set from my point of view. We were never at eye level today,”said Beutler, explaining the three clear sentences.” 2:6,0:2,30:40, what was going on in your head, the moderator wanted to know:”I already noticed that there was something else going on and I wanted to step on the gas again. I had expected to get back into the game, and he helped me to some extent with mistakes he didn’t make in the first set “. The HTT-wimbledon finalist, who has now set the semi-final as his next goal, analysed the situation:”Theoretically, it should look good in terms of health and material this year. I feel super comfortable here at the Centercourt, and maybe I can get in right from the beginning of the next match. Then maybe nothing will stand in the way of a second victory “.