It was nothing for top favourite and last year’s winner Lukas Prüger with a successful title…
Nothing became it for top favourite and last year’s winner Lukas Prüger with a successful title defence at the HTT French Open in the UTC La Ville. The 20-year-old from Lower Austria failed on Tuesday evening in the quarter-finals of the second HTT Season Grand Slam Tournament after 1:44 hours of play and his own incapacity of 61 unforced errors. Negrin made his HTT Major debut with 6:1, 7:6 in his fifth HTT career semi-final, while Prüger not only missed the fifth successful HTT French Open title defence in history after Klaus Hofer, Martin Kova, Bernhard Nagl and Peter Klager, but after 21 victories on clay court in series had to give in for the first time since August 2014. Negrin, on the other hand, can still dream of the fourth title of his career, and now has to deal with his club colleague Christoph Niedhart in the semi-final round, who booked his HTT French Open semi-final ticket in three sets against young star Markus Klaus. Also in the semi-final is HTT-Australian Open finalist Philipp Jahn after winning a quarter-final thriller against Bernd Steiner. From the UTC La Ville reported for hobbytennistour.at C.L
The second longest sand court victory series in HTT history ended on Tuesday evening at exactly 9:32 pm. HTT industry leader Lukas Prüger had won 21 matches on red ashes by yesterday evening to win four sand court titles en suite and was named HTT French Open winner in 2017. On the evening of 4 June 2018, however, the not in top form acting first in the rankings on the way to the title defense found his champion in the quarter finals in the person of Dominik Negrin. In a duel between the 2014 and 2017 HTT First Bank Open winners, the army TC star defeated the top seeded Lower Austrian in 1:44 hours 6:1, 7:6, and entered his fifth HTT career semi-final in his Grand Slam debut. Prüger, however, failed in his attempt to break the record of the longest winning streak on clay. This remains in the possession of the 4-time HTT French Open winner of the 1990s Klaus Hofer, who once remained unbeaten on clay 26 times in a row and celebrated six clay court tournament victories in a row.
That the last year’s winner did not tackle the title defence mission at the HTT French Open 2018 in such a way, with which he could fulfil his intended role as a top favourite, could already be seen on Friday evening in the first-round match of Prügers against the No. 246 of the HTT computer ranking list Daniel Pfeifer. There the number 1 had to fend off set points, an undertaking that went wrong one lap later against Andreas Szabados in the first heat. The clear victory in the round of 16 over Scheidl defeat Benedikt Schlederer then deceived the current form of the 11-time tournament winner a little before the first set of his quarter-final appearance against Dominik Negrin became a revelation and a fiasco. In just 25 minutes Prüger had made 22 unforced mistakes, made three double mistakes, did not fight for a break point, won three breaks and finally had no chance against a solid Negrin who was playing and waiting for mistakes.
In the second set, however, the spectators were compensated for a poor performance at the centre court. For 78 minutes, they were able to watch the fight at eye level that they had expected from this quarter-final hit. Running for a long time as a night session under floodlight at the centre court of UTC La Ville, the game took off. Prüger found at least some of his best tennis, but the leader of the rankings also benefited from Negrin’s short period of weakness, which took a short break in the second set at 1:1, 40:0 and his own serve, and took his first break with five points lost in a row. Thus Prüger was emotionally in the match, and the duel between the two HTT stars was on the upswing. Although the 20-year-old had to give up a 3:1 lead in the meantime and let Negrin go 3:5 with four games in a row, but then Prüger developed fighting qualities of the very best at the centre court. At 3-5, the defending champion, who was later deposed, fended off two match points as recoils, at 4-5, Prüger averted the worst with a forehand kick and deflected match ball no. 3, before the decision was made in the tie-break, where Negrin, after a missed match ball no. 4, finally made the quarter-final victory over the top seeded examiner perfect in the fifth attempt and after a forehand slip by his opponent.
In the semi-final, Negrin will now meet his army TC club mate Christoph Niedhart, who struggled in three sets at the “Stars for You Court” of UTC La Ville through his quarter-final duel with young star Markus Klaus. The 34-year-old seemed to have the events at the centre court under control with the up-and-coming 19-year-old. On his own serve, playing solidly from the baseline, he waited with the routine of his 34 years for the mistakes of his youthful and impetuous opponent, and they came as sure as the amen in church. 6:1 was the result, before Klaus could finally demonstrate his class in round number 2. The young Lower Austrian used a 3-2 break to equalize his sets before he thought he was in the wrong film. The now powerful playing Niedhart won five games in a row, laying the foundation for his third HTT career semi-final. “I’m surprised I made it to the semi-finals of this great tournament. After all, I’m completely missing the match practice. Actually, I was expecting Alex Schager to retire. The boy plays and trains a lot, he should beat me,” said Niedhart about his unexpected success.
Also unexpected for many insiders was the semifinal entry of CTP Pötzleinsdorf star Philipp Jahn. In a 2:49-hour quarter-final thriller at UTC La Ville, the 26-year-old defeated the third army TC star of the evening, Bernd Steiner, 7:5, 2:6, 7:5, in his 20th HTT season match, fixing the second semi-final entry at Grand Slam level in 2018. Jahn took round 1 with a break to 7:5, and at 2:0 in the second set already looked like the sure winner. But Steiner came back with six games in a row and with 6:2 to the highly deserved set equalization. In the decision Jahn led 4-2, before Steiner played his well-known qualities and acted both playfully and militantly at the highest level. Three games in a row to 5:4 were not enough for Steiner, because Jahn made a mega-long game to 5:5, because Steiner left three match balls unused in this phase before he took the break, because the eleventh game to 5:6 went over the stage too fast from the point of view of the 28-year-old, and the defeated army TC star in the end in comparison to Jahn also lacked the necessary coolness in the finish. “Bernd deserved the same victory. I only had a chance if he was too short in his strokes,” the winner analyzed.