Prüger with 21st sand court victory in series into the HTT French Open quarter-finals

Last year’s winner Lukas Prüger has won the HTT-French-Open 2018 on the fourth matchday after initial…

Last year’s winner Lukas Prüger started the HTT-French-Open 2018 after initial difficulties on the fourth day of play, and is stepping up to his successful title defence and a new HTT record. The 20-year-old from Schwechater TC tied a successful double against Andreas Szabados and Benedikt Schlederer on Sunday afternoon and reached the quarter-finals of an HTT tournament for the 13th time in a row. In the round of the last eight, last year’s undefeated first in the rankings on sand now has to deal with the HTT First Bank Open 500 winner of 2014 Dominik Negrin. But also the other quarter finals of the second HTT Season Grand Slam Tournament on Monday evening promise great tennis. C.L reports from the UTC La Ville

After initial problems, Lukas Prüger started to defend his title at the 27th edition of the HTT French Open and expanded his current winning streak on red ash to 21 victories in a row. However, yesterday afternoon in his second round match against Sandplatzwühler Andreas Szabados the first in the ranking started bumpily, and against a committed acting opponent was lacking the usual sovereignty on clay. And so, for the first time since the 2017 HTT French Open semi-final against Matthias Wolf and after seven wins without losing a set, the HTT industry leader in a duel with Szabados had to give up a set. After that, of course, the HTT sand court king’s engine started to run, and Prüger let Szabados and in the round of 16 also Scheidl defeat Benedikt Schlederer in four sets only six games. “I didn’t feel comfortable at the beginning,” said the winner, who will now face former HTT First Bank Open 500 winner Dominik Negrin in the quarter-finals, and is aiming for his 22nd consecutive sand court victory.

The next Prüger challenger is Dominik Negrin, and the army TC star made his HTT Grand Slam debut in the quarter-finals inconspicuously. In the second round on Sunday morning, the 32-year-old first stopped the young Styrian star Timo Jakum in two sets before overthrowing the HTT monument Philipp Schneider in the round of 16 and denying the veterinarian the fifth HTT French Open quarter-final entry of his career – also in two sets. Negrin was once again leading a dream team result for the HTC stars, as clay court robot Bernd Steiner and Schager conqueror Christoph Niedhart also made it to the last eight of the second HTT season’s Grand Slam tournament. Niedhart caused another HTT French Open trauma at the centre court for Alex Schager, who had to bid farewell to the “green mark” for the third time before the quarter-finals in the fourth attempt. In 2015 he even made his debut in the first round, in 2016 Schager saw at least the second round before reaching the HTT French Open quarter-finals for the first time last year. But a great love looks different.

From the army’s point of view, however, it could be for Bernd Steiner, who didn’t give himself any nudity on Sunday, and reached the quarter-finals unexcitedly and unspectacularly. The 28-year-old “worked up” both the number 2 of the tournament Vladimir Vukicevic from Serbia and the former number 1099 of the ATP world ranking list Hubert Hölzler. Now a similarly meticulous worker is waiting in the fight for a semi-final ticket, but one with an unbelievable touch in his arm and an enormous understanding of the game. We are talking about Philipp Jahn, who made it into the quarter-finals with smooth two-set wins over Serbia’s David Krivokuca and Maurer-conqueror Rene Gräflinger. Finally, Markus Klaus completes the quarter-finals of the 42nd Season Tournament. The 19-year-old, who was a bit under the radar of the HTT experts before the tournament, has been on the competition’s slip of paper since Sunday afternoon at the latest. The young Lower Austrian, Matthias Wolf, who won the dress rehearsal for the HTT French Open, threw not only the No. 3 in the ranking and seed list out of the tournament, but also the man who won the dress rehearsal. Impressive and especially interesting is also the way Klaus could bend the tennis worker Matthias Wolf. Only after 3:05 hours of play and the last drop of sweat Klaus had outwitted the human ball machine.