In the two-day semi-final of the April HTT-150 tournament, Robin Reich and…
In the two-day semi-final of the April HTT-150 tournament, the number 1 seeded ASVÖ Vienna star Robin Reich has now been caught. The 22-year-old lost the first semi-final duel of the 23rd season’s tournament against Martin Prechtl 2:6, 6:7, and thus missed his first final appearance since October 2016. 24 hours later and after the second semi-final between young star Noah Grossmann and Mario Bürger from Burgenland had to be cancelled due to rain on Monday afternoon, young star Noah Grossmann also entered the final of the last tournament before the clay court season starting next Friday. The 13-year-old continued his sensational run of success in his HTT debut with a 7:6, 4:6, 6:1 victory against the number 3 of the tournament, and on Wednesday morning in the grand final (LIVE from 10 am on www.hobbytennistour.at) could choose himself the 450th tournament winner of HTT history. C.L reports from Südstadt
For the number 1-ranked Robin Reich, his season debut at the HTT ended in the semi-finals of the April HTT-150 tournament. The current form of the 22-year-old former La Ville star was still not enough against Bringerkönig Martin Prechtl, and so after 1’32 hours of playing time it set the 30th HTT individual defeat of his career with 2’6, 6’7″. Reich started with many slight mistakes, an early break with 0:2 deficit, and thus very bad against an opponent looking for safety. Prechtl took advantage of even the smallest phase of Reich’s weakness in this first set and finished the match 1-0 in sets with three games won in a row after a 3-2 lead in the meantime. When Prechtl quickly went 4-1 in the second set, and at 15:40 had two break chances to 5:1 in front of his chest, everything seemed to indicate a clear success for the 38-year-old. But Reich changed his tactics, began to shovel the balls higher and more discreetly over the net in the style of his opponent, and in the meantime also had success. Reich’s chase to catch up with three games en suite only came to an end in the ninth game, when Prechtl was able to take the lead again with 5:4. The decision was finally made in the tie-break, when Rreich himself failed to score the first two points 2-0 and Prechtl turned his first match point into a 6-2, 7-6 win. This puts the veteran in his fourth HTT career final and his first final in 2018.
In a final duel between the generations, the 38-year-old will face young star Noah Grossmann, who prolonged his surprising triumph against Mario Bürger of TC Neusiedl in the second semi-final duel of the April HTT-150 tournament, and had only clinched a tri-set victory against the tournament’s number three in installments and after more than two and a half hours. At first the weather turned out to be a spoilsport on Monday afternoon. After only four games played, the first rain break of this year’s open-air season came at 2:2, and minutes later the second semi-final of the 23rd HTT season tournament had already been cancelled and postponed to Tuesday morning. Under these splendid conditions, a close exchange of blows developed, especially in the first two movements. Grossmann could not capitalize on an early break and a 4:2 lead for the time being, and had to serve at both 4:5 and 5:6 against the set loss. What the 13-year-old did with flying colours and finally took a 1-0 lead in sets with a 7:3 tie-break. In round 2, a break to 4:3 was enough for Bürger to secure a 6:4 set equaliser before the 23-year-old fell victim to his physical weaknesses in the decisive third heat. With tired legs and empty in his head, Bürger dragged himself over the centre court and stood lost against an unleashed Grossmann. The rattasite conqueror took a 5-0 lead before Bürger made a final appearance in terms of results and scored his honorary game for 1:5. Grossmann served out sovereignly immediately afterwards, and now has high hopes for a possible title win in the live final on Wednesday morning at the debut at the HTT.