Manuel Wachta ends the triumphal march of Russia’s prodigy Aljona Kasatkina

After three individual victories en suite over much more highly esteemed male competitors, the sensa….

After three individual victories en suite over much more highly valued male competitors, the sensational triumphal march of the only 12-year-old Aljona Kasatkina on Tuesday evening in the semi-finals of the 17th Century took place. I’ve found my way to the end of the January BTT 250 tournament. For the first time at a 250cc event of the HTT, the Russian, who had eliminated the strong qualifier Christoph Luef, Bosnia’s No. 1 Sasa Ilic and Kiss-Bezwinger Matthias Mohrs among others on her way to her first HTT career semifinals, was stopped surprisingly clearly by WAC star Manuel Wachta in the preliminary round duel. The 32-year-old Viennese needed only 75 minutes to qualify for a final for the first time in his HTT career with a confidently won 6-1,6-3 victory. There Wachta will meet Seniors-Star Alois Posch, who will play in the second semifinal of the 5th place. UTC La Ville’s sixth season tournament against the top seeded Andreas Köpf also won 6:1,6:3. A report by C. L.

Aljona Kasatkina’s HTT-250 debut, praised as a child prodigy, made her run of success on the fifth and penultimate day of the 17th season. After a 1:15 hour gender duel against Manuel Wachta, the second edition of the January BTT 250 tournament at UTC La Ville came to an end. The 12-year-old from Moscow, who once again fascinated the competition with her breathtakingly fresh and energetic tennis on the last weekend of January of the new year, found her master in the second semifinal in the 20 years older Manuel Wachta, and had to bury her dream of the first HTT career finale after two clearly lost sets. Manuel Wachta is now the conqueror and the “young man”, who used a teaching game to teach Kasatkina, who had previously been brought to her knees in front of Kasatkina, how to cope with the 12-year-old exceptional talent from Russia. And all this after a furious start for his opponent and a day full of worrying thoughts before the late evening duel with the HTT’s female child star.

Kasatkina opened the second semi-final of the first HTT-250 season, transmitted by hobbytennistour. at in the LIVETICKER and eagerly awaited by the HTT community, with the force and precision with which she brought the established rivalry to its knees and to a deep valley of sporting depression in the days before. With four victories, including a final volley, the Muscovite picked up the prelude game to zero, and seemed to continue playing in the phenomenal spheres with which she dealt with Ilic, Mohrs and & Co in the days before. This was followed by perhaps the most important four minutes of this match, in which Wachta, with a very strongly performed service game and his first of three aces, laid his business card with the 12-year-old and set a more than impression creating sign in the direction of the 12-year-old. Kasatkina took the first break against a courageously returning Wachta and never found her usual power and precision for the rest of the first set. But this was also due to a brilliantly planned opponent who set more and more glamorous accents than his two decades younger opponent. On this evening of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Wachtas’ decisive parade was celebrated. January 2018 the stop. Again and again the 32-year-old scored points with these sentimental art strokes, but above all Wachta interrupted the flow of the game with his cleverly arranged backspin attempts and especially the tempo of his 12-year-old counterpart. Thus, the first set went to Manuel Wachta after three successful breaks and only 23 minutes.

This highly successful appearance in the first set gave Wachta a lot of self-confidence, which he played in the second set, despite a quick 2-0 deficit. For a few minutes, however, at the beginning of the second movement, Kasatkina demonstrated her incredible potential and why the HTT career, which lasted for just under 10 months, had already humiliated six men of creation with an ITN of between 4.5 and 4.8 from the court. Tough basic strokes, impressive to watch for a 12-year-old but still dainty girl, Manuel Wachta now knew for a few minutes how Ilic, Mohrs and his friends felt last weekend. But he himself was on the road yesterday evening. Self-confident, eager to play, with the right ideas at the right time, everything simply matched in its second HTT semifinal after Kitzbühel 2012. The 32-year-old took Kasatkina’s serve twice in a row, scored 5 games in a row, and stayed cool at 5:3 despite his fourth double error and a first match point. Once again, he set one of his innumerable stop balls at Matchball No. 2, and after 1:15 hours of play, Wachta finished the Kasatkina show at the January HTTT 250 tournament with 63 points and 28 wins at only 26 unforced errors, reaching his first HTT career final.

To be honest, I had seen myself as a slight outsider before the game and looking at their results so far. However, I have done an extremely good job today, I have done a lot of tactical work, varied cleverly and heeded the advice I received that day. This was probably decisive, because I took away the opportunity to put constant pressure on her,”says Wachta in an initial analysis. Responding to the mental difficulties of the duel with a 12-year-old girl in advance, Wachta continued:”Of course it was very difficult. Colleagues, friends and family will talk to you about it. I had to think about it all day long, because of course – with all due respect for women’s tennis – you don’t want to be pinned on the banner of losing against a 12-year-old. I just tried to have fun with it, just like I did in the matches before. But it was not easy, especially after Kasatkina’s start. But after the first two or three games, I was able to get rid of the knot, and on the whole I handled this situation very well,”says the 32-year-old, who can now look forward to his first HTT career final.” I’m looking forward to the final, although winning the title is not the most important thing for me. Of course, it’s a goal of mine to win at least once a 250 HTT tournament, but whether it’s tomorrow or not, you’ll see. I don’t know my opponent at all, and I’m going to do the same as I have done all week. Just having fun on the pitch and when I call up a performance like today, it can be a very interesting finale. I fully appreciate the chances,”said former tennis journalist Manuel Wachta after his first interview as an interviewer and not as an interviewer.