Christoph Niedhart, a veteran of the 27th edition of the HTT French Open at UTC La Ville,…
Routine Christoph Niedhart reaches for his first Grand Slam title at the 27th HTT French Open at UTC La Ville. The 34-year-old remained victorious on Tuesday evening in the second semi-final of the 2000-point classic clay court on Altmannsdorfer Ast in the club-internal duel against his army TC team mate Dominik Negrin in two sets, and booked after 1:31 hours of play time with a finally deserved 6:4, 6:3 victory his final ticket for the final showdown on Thursday evening at the country’s biggest clay court tournament against Romania’s young star Eric Adochitei. From the UTC La Ville reported for hobbytennistour.at C.L
In a tableau of the 27th tennislife.at May Grand Slam tournament, peppered with top stars, Christoph Niedhart is becoming more and more of a big and highly positive surprise after six days of play. In view of his playful class, the entry into the final of the 106th HTT Grand Slam Tournament in history is of course not surprising, but that the 34-year-old of all players would become the great challenger of the HTT youth led by Eric Adochitei this time, comes unexpected on closer inspection of the circumstances. After the warm-up exercises against Robin Reich and Wolfgang Tritthart, the difficult walk against Alexander Schager, the feat against young star Markus Klaus and the emotinal derby against Dominik Negrin followed. Anything but casual customers Niedhart da on his way to his second HTT career final after the September HTT-500 tournament on Donaufeld in 2016. And this without any match and tournament practice. An amazing circumstance as well as the fact that Niedhart still seems physically fit for the big coup despite five hard games in five days.
With his convincing entry into his first HTT Major career final, Niedhart crowned a fantastic HTT French Open performance for the time being, which culminated so far with the semifinal performance against Dominik Negrin. The eagerly awaited club duel between the two Army TC aces at the centre court of the UTC La Ville brought thrilling and top-class tennis especially at the beginning of the first set. A fine volley here, a tweener there, the audience was offered a fantastic opening phase, in which Negrin left a 40:0 unused right in the opening game and took the first break early. However, the 32-year-old struck back by return of mail before the game expected in the run-up developed. Niedhart used his usual aggressive style of play, and especially tried to put pressure with his forehand, while Negrin took the more defensive part and, acting through his opponent’s backhand, tried his luck. Niedhart then managed the decisive break in round 1 to 3-2, whereby Negrin had missed a 30-0 lead again as in the first service game, and after 45 minutes lamented the first set loss at the 2018 HTT French Open.
Sentence number 2 developed highly balanced for half an hour. In terms of results anyway, both players managed their service games up to 3:3 more or less without any problems. In addition, the familiar picture from round 1 with the more offensive, risk-taking Niedhart, who dominated the match with his forehand and occasionally provided brilliant highlights. On the other side of the net, an HTT First Bank Open 500 winner from 2014, who, as a club colleague, knew about the danger of his opponent’s forehand, and neutralized Niehard’s attacking efforts with a permanent backhand massage. Niedhart then managed the finally decisive break to 4:3, and so the fair for that day was over. Because the 34-year-old did not show a hint of uncertainty on his own serve. On the contrary: Niedhart impressed with service statistics, which will also be helpful if not even necessary in the final against Adochitei. The experienced player did not allow a break point, and 100 percent of points after the first serve clearly demonstrated that the 34-year-old is prepared for the final “battle” with Adochitei.