HTT-US Open winner Patrick Wiesmühler misses semi-final at HTT Tour Finals

WAT Landstrasse youngster Kevin Köck is the youngest player in the 28th place. HTT-Tour-Finals 2017….

WAT Landstrasse youngster Kevin Köck is the youngest player in the 28th place. HTT-Tour-Finals 2017 also on Wednesday evening in his third and final preliminary round match, at least in terms of results, his current and meanwhile almost sensational top form in the last third of the season proved itself. The 19-year-old did not let the reigning HTT-US-Open winner Patrick Wiesmühler stand a chance in the all-decisive ascent duel for a place in the semi-finals, and immediately booked a place among the top 4 in his Masters debut with a 6:3,6:4 victory in exactly 70 minutes at the HTT’s big season finale at Altmannsdorf branch. Köck cheered over the age of 60. With his sixth semi-final move into the series in 2017, Wiesmühler missed his second HTT Tour finals after 2012 with severe shoulder pain and a more than modest performance. A report by C. L.

The group B’s “ascent hit” between HTT-US Open winner Patrick Wiesmühler and November Masters Series 1000 champion Kevin Köck, which went over the stage with great excitement and even greater expectations, turned into a real pipe explorer at the centercourt of UTC La Ville on early Wednesday evening. Two absolute HTT high-carat players did not know how to inspire the large crowd in the hall and to advertise tennis on Austria’s largest amateur tennis series. There were several reasons for this: First of all, Kevin Köck took any moment of suspense with an almost robbery-like start of the game. Köck literally ran over Wiesmühler with his dynamics and precision and seemed to smother the HTT-US Open winner. In only 5 minutes, the 19-year-old had shot the 10-time HTT title holder and 2011 HTT Olympic champion with 12:2 points to a heap of misery, and set course for the “fastest Masters single” in history, before the disaster of the weakest preliminary round match so far began with this year’s tour finals. Köck already had two breakballs to the 4-0 at his opponent’s serve, when he started a little light-heartedly to bring back the third ranked player back into the match. Sloppy returns, less movement and especially blocked in the head, having to give 100 percent more against an apparently shattered opponent, he left Wiesmühler the first game, and thus something like a small straw for the team Donaufeld star, who subsequently presented his ailment to his opponent visually with two cold water bottles on his shoulder.

At least Köck could still rely on his serve in this phase, because after three service games for the meanwhile 4:1 lead, the season’s shooting star from Baumgasse had only one point left. When he also took the break to 0 to 5:1, everyone in the hall thought of a Köck canter victory or, as scenario no. 2, of a task for the handicapped opponent. But neither did not happen. Because Wiesmühler, as a great sportsman on the unique stage “HTT-Tour-Finals” continued to fight bravely, and Köck ran over the court with increasing irritation. In the end, the young star even needed the help of Wiesmühlers, who found a break for the 4:5 at 3:5. Unimaginable from Köck’s point of view, what might have happened at the Centercourt. Bad enough what you had to watch as a spectator in the second heat. Köck and Wiesmühler sledded the level underground with a really unsightly spectacle through the second movement, in which Wiesmühler even had a 3:1 lead with “Break vor”. All participants in the Hall am Dr. Karl Waltl Weg were finally happy at exactly 8:40 p. m. when Wiesmühler put an end to this unplay with the last three of his 36 unforced errors. However, the 24-year-old had two mistakes from the baseline less to his credit than Köck, who missed 38 times in total this evening before he had the upper hand for the second time in the third season duel with Wiesmühler, and with 6:3,6:4 the entry into the semi-final of the HTT tour finals was fixed.

Of course I’m happy to have won, but on the other hand I’m frustrated that this was a completely bad game for both of us today. And this despite the fact that we were both looking forward to this game. But then it didn’t come to this funny, nice and good match “, Köck correctly stated,” I started out well, but I noticed in the first few games that Patrick played very badly and that brought me out somehow. That’s all I can say. I have no explanation. Suddenly at 3-0, I started to tremble all strokes and didn’t play the forehand with the usual pressure and ease. As a result, my serve suffered, and in the end the whole game didn’t work anymore, even with the movement,”Köck concluded, who now has a semi-final duel with Lukas Prüger in grasp” Basically I would be looking forward to a great match and I hope we can repeat the result of the final at the November Masters Series 1000 tournament. I’m gonna go in there like I did against Patrick, whether victory or defeat is secondary. In the foreground is the fun and I hope that we can both play at a high level and offer a good match “, says the 19-year-old, who has already achieved great things with the semi-final entry at the debut” I am glad to be in the semi-finals, but I didn’t pretend to have the top 4 as my goal before. I’ve been looking from game to game, trying to get my performance, and that’s all,”said the WAT highway star at the conclusion of the PK.

At first HTT-US-Open winner Patrick Wiesmühler was asked at the beginning of his PK about his “aches and pains”:”My skull and my shoulder, which is completely in the” Or…”, were physically handicapped. She’s not going anywhere. If you see that I haven’t served an ace in the whole tournament and I’ve made 15 double mistakes in three matches, which I usually serve up for the whole season, it’s because my shoulder has gone all the way to the “Or…”. That just zipped me up because I was training my shoulder, it worked, and now the theatre with my shoulder is back. At such a casual event like the Masters I don’t give w. o., and so it just happened that I pulled the Kevin down in this match. It was a match that couldn’t have been watched,”said a visibly disappointed Patrick Wiesmühler, who then analysed his season’s record as follows:” It started quite well with the semi-finals at the HTT-Australian Open, where I hadn’t really expected to play tennis after half a year’s absence. From the beginning of July I started to play solidly and well, and so I celebrated good results like the home win at the August Masters Series 1000 tournament on Donaufeld. The HTT-US Open title was of course my highlight. Out back I have trained more and therefore I just don’t have the match practice at the moment. Like Vladi, I probably should have played a preparatory tournament to get some matches before the “finals”. But I decided otherwise because I wanted to consciously spare my shoulder,”said the 24-year-old team Donaufeld-Star at the end of his last PK at this year’s HTT Tour finals in UTC La Ville.