88 minutes of finale tennis, an unprecedented victory ceremony in this form…
The two protagonists of the final game, who had completed an unprecedented 88 minutes of finale tennis, enjoyed an unprecedented victory ceremony, had the chance to look back on their experiences at the Champions’ dinner in the Players Lounge, presented themselves at the 28th World Cup Final. HTT tour finals in the UTC La Ville late Saturday evening at the last press conference of the tournament, HTT star moderator Matthias Wagner will also answer the questions of HTT star Matthias Wagner. Once again full of praise for a more than brilliant week, the two HTT aces looked back on their masters performance, remembered the best moments and formulated their goals for the new HTT season, which starts in January. Report by C. L
“I’m sure there was some disappointment right after the match. That’s obvious, because you want to win a match like that. But it keeps within limits, because you can lose against Luki. He did a great job. I’m glad I made it to the final round here. This is a huge success for me. I’m very happy with the result and I have reached my goal for the season. Maybe in the next few years it will be possible to win here,”replied the 29-year-old to the first question from the moderator leading the PK. Addressed after a possible knockout point in this match when Wolf served up three double mistakes for the re-break in the second set at 2-0 and his own serve, the beaten finalist said:”For me it was more of a knockout point than it was very tight in the first set at 4:4. Unfortunately, I was broken to 5:4 and then I was absolutely on my way to the next game, where I missed three break possibilities. They were played underground, hit the frame twice, once I got the fuse and couldn’t even return the ball. There was much more in it to break the Luki to 5:5, and then to be on serve again to really stand up to him. Then I was again 2-0 ahead again, had a match ball to 3-0 and when he broke me back, it became mentally really hard for me. You can’t give 100 percent, the momentum went in Lukis direction and he dictated me super. I had to take more risks, couldn’t keep playing balls all the time any more and I also had no safety at the end. In the end, I didn’t have the feeling that I was still able to turn this game, and if you don’t have that feeling any more, then it’s already over in tennis anyway,”emphasized Wolf, who then drew a summary of the tournament.
I would never have thought a week ago at the start of the tournament that I would sit in this position here at the press conference on the final day, rather than as a spectator. My summary is very positive. A week ago, my goal was to write once, maybe win a match. Then I saw the draw, I was a blatant outsider. After the defeat in the first match against Christoph Beutler, there wasn’t really much to speak for me. Then came the defeat against Luki, ok I expected it. I played well with the 4:6,4:6. Also against Christoph I had actually gotten a good performance, maybe I didn’t realize everything mentally. Then the difficult situation was with the 2 sets to win against Alex Schager in the last group game, where I had to defend a breakball in the first set at 1:3. That was pretty massive, too. Then the task with the semi-final against Vladi, where I did a really good job. You can lose the final. So my résumé is great. The surrounding ambience is also amazing. Starting with the Players party, the photo shooting with the cup in a suit, that was really the absolute highlight of the season for me. I was really looking forward to this tournament and it exceeded my expectations by far. As I said at the award ceremony at the Centercourt, I would like to say thank you to the organizer and everyone else who helped to make sure that everything worked out great, that there was a candy bar in the Players Lounge, that there was always dinner, music and a freezer at the Centercourt. This invasion always, with the song of imagine dragons where I will always think about these great moments in the future when I hear this song. Those are madness memories, and that’s why I’d like to thank you again,”philosophized the number four in the rankings, who’s been very successful so far,” It’s certainly the greatest success on HTT level, although my HTT French Open semi-final entry was also a great achievement at that time. I can already start a happy winter break and am happy about it, because such a tournament is physically noticeable. My goal for the future is to win a Grand Slam title in the near future.
Master’s winner, number 1 at the end of the year, how does that sound to you, the presenter wanted to know first of all about the big winner:”Very fine, I would never have guessed that in April. For a short time I thought about how I should reach the goal of the Master’s participation if I keep playing like this. Looking back in retrospect and after the first half of the season, this is really unbelievable what I played. To win the title here is very important to me. Being number one at the end of the year is also a really cool feeling,”says the 19-year-old. Purely after the bare numbers, Prüger’s tournament victory turned out to be extremely sovereign. But the 19-year-old didn’t want to see it that way:”There were very tight matches. I could have lost a set against Matthias in the group at 4:4, just like today. If I win 5:5 in the first set of the final, I would probably have been very nervous anyway. It could easily have gone the other way, and the semi-final against Kevin was also a close match. Without losing a set, this looks more confident than it really was,”emphasized Prüger, who, when asked about his false start to this final, said the following:” I wasn’t nervous, I was extremely looking forward to the final. With the cool ambience of the entertaiment, the anticipation of the nervousness prevailed. Matthias started this match extremely well. he surprised me while I found it very difficult to find in the match and my game. There were a lot of mistakes at the beginning,”says the 19-year-old HTT French Open winner.
An incredibly cool feeling was the award ceremony with the confetti rain. But already before that, I had to laugh inwardly at the match point which I transformed with an ace. The award ceremony was amazing. For a hobby player, this is unique. The question posed by moderator Mathias Wagner after that was aimed at Prüger’s brilliant 2017 season with seven tournament victories, and whether such a record can be topped in 2018.”It will be very difficult to top that. I would have had to play the same level of consistency for an entire season, and I don’t know whether I can do it. But let’s see what the next season will bring. I plan to compete in all four Grand Slam tournaments next year. This year I only played two majors “. Then, of course, HTT’s organizer asked the questions that had to come to a player who dominated a tennis year so well at the prestigious events. Is the Grand Slam, i. e. the triumph at all 4 major tournaments within a year, possible?”It is rather unlikely, but after such a season as this year’s, I can at least think about this topic. But it remains unlikely that anyone will be able to do that. But I want to keep my form and compete for the title in each of the four Grand Slams. It should look good on sand to successfully defend my HTT French Open title. Personally, I see myself most strongly on sand. But now I’m looking forward to the forthcoming break, and then I’ll attack the HTT Australian Open in January and hopefully start the season as hard as I’ve stopped today in the old season,”Prüger’s response sounded like a dangerous threat to the competition.
HTT-French-Open, 1000 Euro OTC Open, HTT Erste Bank Open, HTT Tour Finals, won 31 matches in a row and set a new record, triumphed at 6 tournaments in a row and thus set a record, number 1 at the end of the year, the list of success of Lukas Prüger for the past season couldn’t be any better. But what does the 19-year-old’s personal hit list actually look like?”The top of the list is, of course, the whole last week with the tournament victory at the end. I’ve never seen anything like it. With music, with the atmospheric invasion, with fog, with moderation, that’s unique and is good for me. I really want to be back here next year. Then I’m on par with the HTT-Erste Bank Open in the Wiener Stadthalle and my success at the HTT-French-Open where I won a big TV. But it’s all victories are a hit, and I’ve been able to win at so many big events, I think it’s really remarkable “.