Neuhauser celebrates Triumph in an epochal January Grand Slam finale

Markus Neuhauser was on Wednesday last week at the first HTT Grand Slam tournament of the year…

On Wednesday last week, Markus Neuhauser once again proved his current early form at the first HTT Grand Slam tournament of the year, and after his opening success at the January HTT 500 tournament, he also celebrated his 27th birthday. The second edition of the HTT-Australian Open in the UTC LA Ville was won after a fantastic and dramatic four-set finale. For the time being the biggest triumph of his career to date was recorded by the 24-year-old with a 6:4,5:7,7:7:6,6:4 victory over CTP-Pötzleinsdorf figurehead Philipp Jahn only after 3:19 hours of playtime. With his 11. Individual victory in series Neuhauser became the first red-white-red January Grand Slam winner since 2015 and the 44th overall winner in a row. Winner of an HTT Major in the meanwhile 105 Grand Slam tournaments of the Open era. A report by C. L.

Markus Neuhauser from the Tennis Community St. Pölten has won his personal “Golden January” with the success at the 27th World Championships, the highest ranking in the world. The first edition of the HTT-Australian Open was completed and played itself emphatically in the focus of the HTT public. The 24-year-old, at the beginning of the season still number 158 in the HTT computer ranking, lifted himself with 11 victories in 12 days to the first 2-fold title holder of the season and up to 110 points to the high jazzed Top Ten of the hobby tennis tour. The climax of his seemingly galactic January was delivered by Neuhauser on Wednesday evening in the final of the first HTT Grand Slam tournament of the new year, where he succeeded Alex Stokker as HTT Australian Open Champion after an epic duel with Philipp Jahn and winning 148:143 points. As already mentioned, it was a high class final exchange of blows for the first season: Major titles, even though you had to be afraid of one of these unencumbered and one-sided Grand Slam final showdows in the run-up to last year’s showdown-except for the January Grand Slam tournament. And rightly so, because Neuhauser hadn’t played a single set in 5 games on the highest HTT level on his way to his opening match, and in the semi-final he had left only 4 games to a – admittedly catastrophically playing – first ranked Lukas Prüger. And then there was the final one week earlier at the preparation tournament at the UTC La Ville, when Neuhauser laid worlds between himself and his opponent Philipp Jahn in the final of the January HTT 500 tournament in desolate 74 minutes.

But then everything changed again! Jahn, physically “almost rested” and mentally magnificent after two unscathed victories and a short appearance in the semi-final, was highly concentrated and motivated from the very beginning and quickly revealed to his opponent that he had to prepare himself for a hot dance over the full distance. Also, when Jahn got the first break early on to 1:2, which he equalized again in the sixth game to 3:3. A bad praise, a double error and a forehand concreted into the out, however, promptly wiped out the fruits of Jahn’s hard-earned break, and so the first round was lost 4:6 in the end after 22 uncoupled mistakes and 48 minutes. Jahn remained true to the number 22 in the second set, but this time 22 winners with only 15 unforced errors, and with this record and 2:1 breaks the 26-year-old was able to equalize after another 51 minutes with a 7:5 to 1:1 set. 100 minutes had been played at this time, 77:77 points fought out and the final had reached a very high level of suspense.

Round 3 had to be decided after two losses of the two final protagonists in the tie-break. There, Neuhauser & Jahn then offered incredible tennis, delivered borderline rallies at the climax of the not unimportant third set, before Neuhauser had won an extra point in the account with 40:39 and the set with 7:6 in his favour after 55 minutes. The air seemed to be out for the 26-year-old January ETT-500 finalist, who seemed to be defeated after losing TieBreak and a 2-1 setback, and was trailing 3-0 after only 10 minutes of the fourth set. But appearances were deceiving! Jahn had no intention of surrendering without a fight and ending his first HTT Grand Slam career final with a dull final act. With 8 points in a row, Jahn found his way back into the lane. to zero the re-break to 2:3 and after exactly three hours of play, the fourth heat was again completely open at 3:3. And it should be even better in the meantime for Jahn, who should have a second break right after that. In just 17 minutes, the 26-year-old had thus turned a 3-0 deficit into a 4-3 lead in just 17 minutes, and won the final of the 27th minute. HTT-Australian Open in a galactic sphere. The spectators had long since witnessed an epochal exchange of blows at the UTC La Ville and back home in front of the live ticker, which was to take another turn minutes later. Neuhauser countered immediately with the re-break, and shortly afterwards, with a sovereignly accomplished service game to 5:4, increased the pressure on the opponent now serving against the loss of the match. 73 percent of first serve over the entire match, 84 percent of “second” and the respectable quota of almost 60 percent of points after both the first and second service were of no use in the end, Jahn said nothing at all.

At exactly 23:34 o’ clock after 3:19 hours Markus Neuhauser was in 20th place. January 1st Grand Slam Champion of HTT history, as the first Austrian winner since Bernhard Scheidl in 2015 and the new number 11 in the HTT Computer Ranking “The final today was a really cool fight. Compared to the final one week ago, Philipp was on a completely different tactical course. He worked with a lot of slice and took the tempo very well from the rallies. This caused me unbelievably great difficulties today, and I had to go through a lot of very long rallies. Thank goodness I am fit as a king, and so I was able to finish this exhausting game. I must pay a big compliment to Philipp. He gave everything to the end and made this final a great match. Now, of course, I am extremely happy to hold the cup in my hands. It was a great tournament, and on this way I would like to say thank you for the great organisation “, said the new HTT Australian Open Champion.