The first winner of the last weekend with the January HTT-500 tournament in scene went ne…
Markus Neuhauser is the first winner of the new tennis year at the HTT last weekend with the January HTTT 500 tournament. The 24-year-old put in the 29th place at the start. Season since the foundation of the Hobby Tennis Tour in 1990 with an impressive performance of phased worlds between himself and the competition, and won the title at the 17th World Championships in a sovereign manner without losing the set and only 26 games. First edition of the January HTT 500 tournament at UTC La Ville. In the final of the season opener tournament, Neuhauser did not even let CTP Pötzleinsdorf figurehead Philipp Jahn stand a chance, and finished his first tournament victory in 74 minutes with a score of 6:2,6:4 in the Hobby Tennis Tournament. With 500 points for victory, Neuhauser made his way into the HTT-Entry-List’s Top 40 for the first time in his career and thus also into the midst of the seed list for the upcoming HTT-Australian Open at UTC La Ville. A report by C. L.
When the first Grand Slam tournament of the year will be staged on the forthcoming third weekend in January, the 27th Grand Slam has already started. In addition to the many promising title aspirants, another absolute favourite for the first major trophy of the new season will be the 8th edition of the ever-popular HTT Australian Open. Markus Neuhauser has dominated the first final on HTT-500 level 2018, just like the entire tournament and his four matches on the way to the final before that. In his opening final, the 24-year-old benefited initially from an indisposed Philipp Jahn, who interspersed three forehand mistakes in the opening game, thus conceding the early break. Then Neuhauser explained why the 2-time HTT champion Florian Böhm, who was 24 years old, had already been the clear favourite for the title. Neuhauser convinced with hammer hard and extremely placed serves, he demonstrated a lot of touch at Volleys & Stopps and also impressed with a predetermined basic speed. In doing so, he made life difficult for Jahn, who on top of everything else but acting with extra motivation stumbled into a clearly lost first movement. Two times, for the 1:2 and 2:5, the Berger-Bezwinger was able to pass his service and achieve a kind of result cosmetics, but after 28 minutes Neuhauser had set the course with 6:2 clearly in the direction of winning the title.
Also at the beginning of the second set Neuhauser started like a robbery and finally successfully, when he was able to use his fourth opportunity for an early break against the striking Jahn in the opening game. But unlike in the first round, Jahn found his chances to give his first HTT career final a turnaround. The 26-year-old Viennese ratcheted up the re-break with a final forehand winner, only to lie back 1:4 minutes later. In this phase, however, Neuhauser showed a few small weaknesses, especially in terms of concentration, the one in St. Peter lost. Pölten Championship playing HTT-Star a little bit the thread. Weaker served, Neuhauser had to accept his second break in the course of this match, and at 2:4, Jahn would have been able to catch up with his later conqueror with more force and a little bit of luck. The 26-year-old led 40:15, when he won the decisive break for the 2:5 with four mistakes in a row. Instead of 3:4 it was 2:5 instead of 3:4, and yet Jahn did not let himself be stopped by his little “mini-match-up”. A very strong return game to the 3:5, a 4:5 service game, and Neuhauser was once again in the finish. A last challenge that the new HTT-500 champion mastered with flying colors. With a total of 60 points, Neuhauser had won his first HTT tournament, winning 440th place. Tournament winners of the HTT history played up, and in the end also the successor of Alex Stokker. And last year he won the HTT-Australian Open last year!