Martin Mayer wins his first HTT title since May 2014 at the March HTT-500 tournament

With a great twentieth career tournament and a final gala performance in the end…

With a superbly played twentieth career tournament and a final gala performance in the final of the 15th World Cup. March HTT 500 tournament at UTC La Ville, HTT old star Martin Mayer brought himself back to the attention of the broad HTT public on Wednesday evening after an almost four-year dry spell on Austria’s largest amateur tennis series of the Hobby Tennis Tour. The meanwhile 36 year old HTT Olympic champion from 2014 dominated the 17. HTT season final in the fight for the succession of Alexander Sikanov as the new March HTT 500 champion against the 2015 HTT Australian Open winner Bernhard Scheidl at will, and won his first HTT tournament victory since May 2014 and the fourth HTT title of his career in just 59 minutes of play with a 6:2, 6:2 success never at risk. For Bernhard Scheidl, who was disappointing on the net this time, after a final lesson in his sixth consecutive career final, only a”silver plate” remained for second place for the fifth time in a row. Thus the 32-year-old must continue to wait for his first title win since January 2015. A report from C.L

The three-year series of international successes at the March HTT Tournament 500 at UTC La Ville has been broken. Martin Mayer from TK Big Point Muckendorf won the red-white-red title at the third HTT-500 tournament of the year on Wednesday evening for the first time since Christoph Beutler in 2014. Individual victory in 60. HTT single of his career back into the HTT winner lists. In the final duel with Bernhard Scheidl the number 7 seeded Lower Austrian confirmed his top form during the tournament and demonstrated his extraordinary skills once again after a long time. Mayer was at a level with which he once dominated the first half of the season in 2014 with three tournament victories en suite, and with which he could still cause a furore in the concert of the very best. 34 winners with only 14 unforced errors, a 100 percent success rate in his network attacks, and an excellent service with 88 percent of points won after the first serve and 4 Aces top.

It was a special finale, this seventeenth of this season. The final showdown at the 310. the UTC La Ville Single Tournament of History and the 306. HTT-500-Event of the Open Era was at the same time also one of those rare editions, in which one looked in vain for one of the countless up-and-coming young stars. Mayer with his 36 years and Scheidl with his 32 years, with that the only second season finale of two +30 players was perfect. In the past six months, with 35 tournaments largely dominated by youth, there were just three of these “final duels for seniors”. But that the former HTT top stars are not yet old-fashioned was shown on Wednesday evening in the March HTT-500 final. Mayer started as if stung by the tarantula, scored his first service game to zero, and was also important in his first return game fully focused on the matter. The best “Serve & Volley player of the HTT-present” stood opposite him, who like no other in the circuit is able to transport the small yellow felt ball “volley” over the net with “touch as well as with precision”. So Mayer was all the more concentrated right from the start at his opponent’s service games, and that promptly paid off.

After an unsuccessful half-volley scheidls Mayer managed the early break to 2-0. Even more important than the early interim lead, however, was this first return game Mayers, especially mentally for both players. Mayer had made clear to the “Serve & Volley Gott” of Lake Neusiedl in the very first return game what he would expect from his permanently presented net attacks, and increased the pressure on the opening Burgenlanders accordingly right from the start. Although Scheidl quickly managed the re-break at 1:2 and the equaliser immediately afterwards, he could not impress Martin Mayer, who had not worked and acted for a long time. The final wake-up call from the later winner’s point of view at 2:2 was probably two double mistakes in a row for 0:30, because eight minutes later, a great serving and a fantastic returning Mayer had turned a 2:2, 0:30 into a 6:2 set lead.

The decisive scenes from Scheidl’s point of view were probably those in the second game of the second set, when the 32-year-old juxtaposed a 40-0 lead with an unusually large and, by his standards, quite simple volley mistakes on his own serve. Just as the offensive game of the former HTT top ten star, which was otherwise regarded as a spectacle, “paralyzed” on this evening. The HTT Australian Open winner from 2015 appeared 36 times on the net, and Scheidl could only finish 14 of these network attacks with a points win. Clearly too little for the king of the volley! Mayer, on the other hand, controlled the match on his own serve, skilfully played the “2-0 break” to the end of the set, and “crowned” his grandiose performance there at the end with a final break to a 6-2, 6-2 win over Bernhard Scheidl. Mayer thus prolonged his perfect final result with 4 victories in 4 final participations at the HTT. It’s good to have won another tournament at the HTT, even though it’s fair to say that the density of top players wasn’t as high as usual this time. The last tournaments I didn’t play really well, but two weeks ago on the HTT Seniors Tour I noticed that I hit the balls better again. And also this weekend I played very well. Especially the last two matches were very strong. With Schager and Scheidl they were two completely different types of players, but thank God I was able to implement my tactical plan in both matches. Now I’m looking forward to the upcoming tournaments,” said the new March HTT-500 champion from TK Big Point Muckendorf.