Lukas Prüger aims for HTT French Open title defence

All attention of the tennis-playing federal capital is these days again in the direction of UTC La Vi…

All attention of the tennis-playing federal capital is directed these days again towards UTC La Ville, where Austria’s largest popular sports tennis series has pitched its tents for the 27th edition of the HTT French Open – this time under the patronage of tennislife.at. And there is no longer any doubt among tennis experts in this country that the HTT French Open – this year as tennislife.at Mai Grand Slam – is the most important and prestigious, but above all by far the largest popular sports tennis tournament in Austria. And even though for the 27th edition of the classic clay court on the Altmannsdorf branch the absolute record of participants was just missed, all players and experts talk about the strongest hobby tournament of all times due to an unbelievable density of top stars. One that also promises a lot of excitement, also with regard to the question of the title allocation. In the run-up to the second HTT Season Grand Slam Tournament, some challengers for last year’s winner Lukas Prüger have emerged. By the way, the 20-year-old starts without preparation and without a single tournament match on red ash in the run-up to the HTT French Open in the mission title “title defense”. C.L reports from the UTC La Ville

The big favourite for the title at the most important sand court tournament of the year remains despite adverse preparation and despite a gigantic field of participants the superior first in the rankings Lukas Prüger, who as the secret sand court king last year could not even be defeated by his opponents on red ash. Prüger is only the fifth player in history to aim for the feat of successfully defending the title, and despite a lack of tournament practice in the run-up, the 20-year-old can fall back on his current super scores on clay. Prüger has been undefeated on red ash for 18 games and could close the gap with a win over wildcard owner Daniel Pfeifer and his 19th consecutive sand court victory over Markus Seitner and Alexander Geisler, who, with 19 sand court victories en suite, also hold the third-best sand court series of all time. Prüger has also won four Sand titles in a row, which means he still lacks a tournament victory over Victor Stabrawa, who won five sand titles in a row, and two title wins over record holder Klaus Hofer, who once even won six sand court tournaments in a row.

This year there are as many challengers for the HTT sand court king as “sand” at the sea. In the preparation tournaments Markus Neuhauser played the role of the first challenger with his success at the Mai Masters Series 1000 tournament. The HTT-Australian Open Champion loves the game on the red ashes, but complained of a feverish cold just before the start of the tournament. The last big test before the 27th tennislife.at May Grand Slam Tournament was won by Matthias Wolf at the May HTT-500 Tournament, but the experts at major level do not yet believe that he will make it to the top. Experts and insiders are more likely to speculate with names like Bernd Steiner or Christoph Niedhardt. The seventh-placed Alexander Schager and young star Markus Klaus should also be noted, even though the upcoming season’s highlight will take place on sand.

Two highly deserved and highly decorated HTT superstars, who have not yet found their way into 2018, show just how quickly the HTT business is turning, and above all how quickly great successes of the past in the present no longer have any expressiveness and radiance. We’re talking about 3-time HTT Wimbledon winner and runner-up Vladimir Vukicevic from Serbia, who never made it beyond the quarter-finals of an HTT tournament this season, and could never advance further than the round of 16 at the HTT French Open. And then of course Philipp Schneider, who with 16 tournament victories and two titles in the HTT Tour Finals is one of the three most successful players of the last 5 years, and who would finally be granted his first HTT Grand Slam title by the broad tour public.

A very hot candidate for victory in the 27th HTT French Open, however, is a man who regularly pulls off top performances at the second Grand Slam tournament of the year, but “still” could not make the big final step. We are talking about Martin Zehetner, who after three semifinal participations en suite in 2014, 2015 and 2016, finally reached the final for the first time last year, and was defeated in three sets by an unleashed and in top form Lukas Prüger. Can the 37-year-old eighth in the rankings also take the final step this time? As always, the veteran of TC Deutsch Wagram prepared himself with his appearance at the Marchegg Open, where he came to title lessons for the third time in a row.