Alexander Schager back in the fight for the Tour-Finals-Semifinal places

Last year’s finalist Alexander Schager took part in the HTT Tour 2017 finals at the UTC La…

Last year’s finalist Alexander Schager returned to the semi-finals of the exciting group A preliminary rounds on the fourth matchday of the 2017 HTT Tour finals at UTC La Ville. The 22-year-old Styrian won the night from Tuesday to Wednesday against Christoph Beutler, who was inferior at times, in only 61 minutes with a score of 6:2,6:4, and after his debacle last Sunday against Lukas Prüger, he stormed into second place in his group of preliminary rounds. Before tomorrow’s third matchday on Thursday, all players will have the chance to take part in the 28th round of the final round, in addition to the already qualified Lukas Prüger. 2nd edition of the HTT-Tour-Finals 2017 in the UTC La Ville. A report by C. L.

The decision as to who will make it into the semi-final of the HTT Tour Finals 2017 from Group A alongside seasonal dominator Lukas Prüger has therefore been postponed to Donenrstag and leaves nothing to be desired in terms of suspense. Since yesterday evening, the chances of Alexander Schager, who was badly busted in the opening match, have been intact again, just like last year’s semi-finals of what is now Austria’s most prestigious hobby tennis tournament. The 22-year-old from Upper Styria kept his chances in the night session of the fourth matchday at the UTC La Ville Centercourt with a 6-2,6-4 win over Christoph Beutler in just 61 minutes, and after his third consecutive victory over the HTT Wimbledon finalists in the Head to Head with the HTT Olympic runners-up from 2016 to 3:1. So Schager is back in the ascent race for a place in the “Semi”, how good the October HTT-500 champion from Leoben is, but the sixth direct duel with Beutler on Tuesday at night could not give any information about this. Immediately after a gala performance in doubles at Andreas Trinko’s side against the HTT-Top-Doppel Krawcewicz curling head, Beutler delivered one of his now famous and infamous moody fit performances, according to which any analysis and outcropping of performances and form curves is virtually forbidden. If it wasn’t “Tour-Finals-Time” at the moment, and a task wouldn’t be without consequences for the further course of the tournament and, in addition, if every “action and action” of the players would be exposed to a broad focus of the Viennese tennis scene, then Beutler would probably have put down a classic “walk over” at the center court of the UTC La Ville last night.

The 33-year-old had already lost the mood of this Masters single against Schager after barely 20 minutes. The top star from Marswiese had already met his Styrian opponent twice with a service and returned 1:4. After Schager’s 5:1 Beutler only played “Punkt oder Plane”, came with this tactic to the 2:5 and made it – funny as it may sound – not so easy for his opponent. Because there was no rhythm in this phase for Schager, who won the set 6:2 after only 24 minutes. What would now follow in the second set, one asked oneself outside in the audience! A catching-up hunt like on Saturday against Matthias Wolf or a gifted short number at a late hour? Beutler took himself into his duty to take this game more seriously and won a 3:1 lead from the first four games. The opponent travelled 170 kilometres from Styria, Beutler as the current top ten player was one of the HTT stars with a certain role model function for the many kids and teenagers on the hobby tennis tour, and became aware of this role, Beutler showed what he is capable of with a racquet in his hands. After 61 minutes, the night session, which was far behind expectations, was over without any playful highlights, but despite the lack of fun in the Sportsman affair, Beutler was enough to ask himself the most annoying questions during this evening’s on-court interview. With an “Edelweiss” the world looked different again, and the PK with moderator Mathias Wagner could start after midnight:

After the doubles there was a little bit of air outside and I had some extreme problems to bite into this game. Against Matthias Wolf I managed to do that. Probably the performance there was also inferior in the first set, today I tried a little bit in the second set. But I’m totally dissatisfied with my serve. On the course, it seems to me that the better choice is to serve a second serve instead of a first serve, and so a “break before” is not yet a big advantage. Schager played well and did it well, produced a few errors of his own and thus deservedly won,”concluded the ranking list tenth. Asked about his plans for the rest of the HTT tour finals, Beutler replied:”The motto will be that I will continue to focus on the doubles. We’re through and maybe that’s why I can focus more on the single, but I just want to have fun and that’s something I rarely or never had. Maybe I can get in against lucas, and I can wind up my game again. Then the result will come of its own accord, or even not if the Lukas should be too good,”says the 33-year-old Marswiese star.

Schager’s analysis then turned out to be as follows:”I think Christoph has had a similar day today to the one I had against Luke on Sunday. I played what I had to play. When he played better, I was able to improve, but in between it was hard because of the lack of rhythm. It was a strange match, but in the end I won and still have a chance to reach the semi-finals. I will also try to win against Wolf, preferably in two sets. This is going to be exciting, because he has the chance to rise. And he can play well, I also had a hard time in the final of the October HTT 500 tournament. It is precisely on this course that I value him very highly, and he has recently delivered good results. This will certainly be an open game, but I hope for a win,”said Schager, looking ahead to next Thursday.