Ilic takes May HTT-150 title and second tournament victory for Bosnia

Punctually before the arrival of the “cold Sophie” with rain and supercooled temperatures…

Just in time for the arrival of the “cold Sophie” with rain and supercooled temperatures, the 11th edition of the May HTT-150 tournament at UTC La Ville ended on Monday evening at an unusually early date. And the competition, which went down in the history of the hobby tennis tour as the 1,230 single tournament of the Open era, won Slavisa Ilic’s victory, the second Bosnian title after the first victory for the Southeastern European country in July last year, when Moris Ahmetasevic triumphed at the Prater Cup 250. Ilic – who was the 71st international player to win a tournament at the HTT – defeated Michael Rosenmayer in the 35th final of this year’s HTT season, who was also in a final for the first time after 1:45 hours of play, 2:6, 6:1, 6:3, making him the 32nd new winner of the first third of the season. From the UTC La Ville reported for hobbytennistour.at C.L

“The Ice Saints” a weather phenomenon in May, this year again they live up to their name. Looking back into May last year to the final of the May HTT-150 tournament 2017. 2 degrees above zero, the two finalists David Wieczorek and Sebastian Hickl literally freeze their buttocks off at the “2-course” of Dr. Karl Waltl Weg. Wieczorek was more protected from frost and won 6:3, 6:4 the first of his two HTT career titles so far. 365 days later, “cold Sophie” is on the doorstep again, but this time the HTT has cheated the “Sopherl”. The forecast weather depression was countered with a tight schedule, the final of the 11 May HTT-150 tournament for David Wieczorek’s successor was already on the agenda on Monday evening. With two final debutants who had qualified hard for their first HTT career final and tried to give their best in three sets. With varying success!

Slavisa Ilic of the AZ Tennisclub has crowned his small jubilee with the 10th tournament start of his HTT career, which has been running for exactly one year, with the first tournament victory. However, the 30-year-old had made a classic false start at the UTC La Ville centre court. It was perfect when Ilic, after an early first break in the opening game, took a 40-0 lead minutes later at 2-0 and his own serve, and was trailing 3-0 with a double break. With two games won, Ilic was able to limit the damage, but could not prevent the loss of the first set. Perhaps the final of the 642nd sand court tournament of the Open era at the Altmannsdorfer Ast would have gone in a different direction if Rosenmayer had used his break possibility in the first game of the second set, although one cannot reproach the 35-year-old from UTC Neusiedl am See in this situation, especially since Ilic was there with an ace on a very large scale to prevent the worst.

Rosenmayer’s ten blackest minutes followed during his HTT final premiere. The 35-year-old had just managed a re-break to 1:2, when he had lost 14 points in the second set and possibly the whole match. After the re-break mentioned above, the 35-year-old only managed one more point, and so Ilic had given the final such an unexpected turnaround in only 23 minutes with the set equaliser. After all: Rosenmayer rises up, the 35-year-old again developed the agrressivity with which he already took young star Sebastian Wojta off the road of victory in the semi-final. Fighting spirit and passion were noticeable again, Rosenmayer had apparently effortlessly shed the loss of the second set and marched towards winning the title. Both service games at the beginning of the third set won in a sovereign manner to zero, in addition the break to 3:1 also fixed without point loss, Rosenmayer had set the course in the first 20 minutes of the deciding set quite clearly towards title victory.

Exactly 27 minutes later Rosenmayer stood there empty-handed, Ilic had played five games in a row and won his first and second title for his home country. How did this happen? Well, Ilic was careful in the finish to make a few mistakes with a high trajectory, and left it to his opponent to make the game and the decisive mistakes. Rosenmayer also made these, especially on the forehand side and on his increased excursions to the net. “In the end, Ilic played well and did not win undeservedly,” congratulated the underdog. “Nevertheless, today was a huge opportunity to win the HTT title,” Rosenmayer was aware. “I’m very happy about winning the tournament and less about my performance. I have pain in my arm, and so I couldn’t speed up the ball as much as I had imagined,” the winner explained himself in a short and concise style.