HTT-Girls-Power after Gratzl-Triumph ebbed away again

The stars of yesterday’s first matchday on the last weekend before the first big high point of the season…

The stars of yesterday’s first matchday on the last weekend before the first big highlight of the season, the HTT French Open, were not the players around top seed Christoph Kramer, but the courts of UTC La Ville and the magician of the red ashes at the Altmannsdorfer – in short – “Fritz der Zauberer Schmaus”. The experienced groundsman of UTC La Ville once again made it possible for the 8th edition of the May HTT 250 tournament and the 7th edition of the May Future tournament to be staged punctually and as planned at 4 p.m. despite the downpour hours before the first serve of the 40th seasonal tournament. From the UTC La Ville reported for hobbytennistour.at C.L

It was torrential rain that fell in the morning of yesterday’s Friday over the south of Vienna and thus also over the tennis courts of UTC La Ville. Quite a few of the HTT stars in action in the afternoon speculated after only two rain interruptions in the current HTT season with the first complete rain cancellation of the year, but once again they did not have “Magician Fritz” and his abilities on the bill. When the storms had cleared in the early afternoon, the established place cosmetician of the UTC La Ville started his personal mission equipped with broom, shovel and enough red ash. “It was perfect conditions and absolutely awesome to play”, was how May HTT 250 starter Lukas Schöggl summed it up at the end of the first and all 11 scheduled matches of the opening match day.

Even 72 hours after the impressive Gratzl triumph at the Mai-Challenger, the girl power of the 13-year-old was still the big topic of conversation. As the tenth youngest tournament winner of the Open era, she won the first female tournament in a men’s HTT tournament since August last year, when Bolivian Hortencia Birnbaumer took the title & trophy to South America in the August HTT-150 tournament at TC Terra Rossa on Tuesday last week. A little overshadowed by Nathalie G and a little lost the fact that not much would have been missing, and the May Challenger tournament would have been the second purely female final at HTT level. Because below the perception limit, an 11 year old girl became the real tournament sensation on the last tournament weekend.

Ekaterina Perelygina, Russian junior hopeful and reigning HTT-Australian-Open-Junior-Finalist 2018, let the established opponents jump over the blade at the May-Challenger, and threw both playful class and a huge portion of fighting spirit into a tournament that was ultimately inspiring for her during her impressive triumphal procession through the tableau into the semifinal. After all, the current No. 18 of the junior hobby tennis tour cracked her mega-experienced Russian compatriot Stanislav Perepelkin, the double-winning Timo Sichtars and the 2-time Future title holder and Martin Spengler, known as a fighting machine, on the way to her first semi-final.

However, the so-called “Girls Power” of the past weekend ebbed in the slow red sand on the Altmanndorf branch on yesterday’s first day of the 19th tournament weekend of this year. Annika Glaser – Future finalist who was still highly acclaimed in March – had to take note after a 3’06” – and ultimately lost – tennis battle at UTC La Ville’s small centre court that Future Tour and qualification on the 250cc level are two different pairs of shoes. Whereby the 13-year-old would have had all possibilities to reach the main competition at the 647th clay court tournament of the HTT Open era with her 4:6, 6:3, 3:6 slip against Matthias Hackl. Meanwhile, Ines Anna Sifkovits has to wait for her first individual HTT victory. The 19-year-old was beaten 3:6, 4:6 by Julian Lockl at the start of the number 10 May Futures tournament of the junior hobby tennis tour and thus suffered her second HTT career defeat in the second match at the centre court of UTC La Ville.

What else happened yesterday at the opening game? Lukas Schöggl, Martin Dampier and Michael Rosenmayer fully lived up to their favourite roles in round 1 of the May 8th HTT-250 tournament and reached the round of the last 16 without losing a set. Benno Link and Daniel Pfeifer also reached the round of the last 16, but they only qualified after overtime and three sets each.