Grand-Slam-Champ as No. 288 – Adochitei writes HTT-Major fairy tale

Eric Adochitei has won the alleged underdog final of the HTT-French Open as No. 288 of the HTT-Compute…

Eric Adochitei won the supposed underdog final of the HTT French Open as No. 288 of the HTT computer ranking list against Christoph Niedhart, who even started into the tournament without ranking, and with his first HTT career tournament victory also fulfilled the dream of the first Grand Slam title. The 18-year-old triumphed 6:3, 6:2, 6:3 after 2:06 hours of play against the army TC star in the final major decision at the UTC La Ville centre court last Thursday and set some historic records in the red ash on the Altmannsdorf branch. C.L reports from the UTC La Ville

When Eric Tudor Adochitei-Pandelea – as he is actually called with full and well sounding names – received the huge silver trophy with all the champions of the past for the greatest success of his career from the HTT organizer, he also had something like a piece of history in his hands. An almost three decades long story about an event that from the very beginning had established itself as the most important and prestigious in the HTT circuit and has lost nothing of its fascination, flair and uniqueness until the very last day. Only great names are immortalized in the mighty trophy, and since June 7, 2018 also that of Eric Adochitei, who became the superstar of the first week of June and the second HTT Grand Slam tournament of the season in six tournament days from the completely unnoticed player, and in view of the unusual nature of his success made the statistics department of HTT sweat.

As No. 288 of the HTT Computer Ranking to the HTT Grand Slam Champion, this is of course a record in the HTT Open era and the new best ever achieved by Lukas Planteu, who won the 2011 HTT Australian Open as No. 202. After Florian Urach and Martin Kova, Adochitei is with his 18 years the third youngest HTT-French Open winner in history, and altogether only the third actor after Alexander Geisler (2009 and 2012) and Peter Klager (2013), who could secure the most important sand court title of the year. The Niedhart conqueror is also the 17th HTT French Open winner, and the 45th player in 28 years of Hobby Tennis Tour, who has taught titles at the 106 Grand Slam tournaments held to date. As the 463rd tournament winner of the Open era, Romania’s new young star also honored his home country and continued the successful and glorious tradition of the Carpathian servers at HTT-Majors. Adochitei is the third Romanian HTT Grand Slam winner after Damian Roman and Alex Stokker to win the seventh Romanian major title and the second Romanian HTT French Open victory after 2016 by Damian Roman. For Romania it was already HTT tournament victory no. 31, and for the statistics section title no. 169 for the international HTT stars, who are again just in front in the Grand Slam title duel with the red, white and red aces from the last 25 major events with 13:12 successes.

The “most important final of the year” – at least on red ash – started with a lightning start Adochi ice, which with two aces in the opening game emphatically proved its serve strength and presence at the service once, and also profited from a nervous and erroneous initial phase of Niedhart, who had gotten himself a much too early break with four unforced errors. The “worst case scenario” had come true, because in order to see an exciting and open final, Niedhart should win the first round of the generation duel – at least the experts on site agreed. When Adochitei quickly won again 40:0 in the next service game, the worst fears arose in the Niedhart camp. But tennis is and remains a crazy sport, with one person tipping over predictions, theses and laws from one second to the next, just as rapidly as the young Romanian’s aforementioned 40-0 lead. Out of nowhere Niedhart was offered a break opportunity, and the 34-year-old accepted with thanks for the re-break. Minutes later, Adochichi’s coach felt like he was in the wrong movie, his protégé had given up the dominant part and suddenly faced a 2:3 deficit with another break. The following minutes and scenes may have been the ones that had a lasting influence on the further course of this finale. Niedhart had a 40:15 lead on his own serve, and he left it unused with two more unforced mistakes on the baseline. But even more fatal were his two double mistakes produced in one piece, with which the army TC veterinarian helped the young star to re-break and back into the match.

And Niedhart’s double-kick of double mistakes was also the prelude to a series of match balls and break balls awarded to the 34-year-old, with which he can normally win an entire tournament. A 40:0 to a possible 4:4 was just as bitter as four missed break chances to a possible 4:5 in the 17 minutes lasting last game of the first set, in which Adochitei could then use his sixth set ball to 6:3. The second round was exactly four games long open and balanced, the two serves had passed their service games safely, before Adochitei in the consequence with two breaks in series and with 6:2 the set lead on 2:0 expanded, and thus probably more than the preliminary decision had brought about. Romania’s young star had now finally smelled fuse, and Niedhart had once again remained true to his motto for the day at the beginning of the third set “Chances to Forgive”. Omitted a break ball to the 2:0, at 1:1 a 40:0 to the possible 2:1 blown, at 1:2 again two break possibilities to the 2:2 blown, in the end it was the logical consequence from all these missed great chances that Adochitei with 6:3, 6:2 and 6:3 also came crystal clear to the title win at the 27th HTT French Open in the UTC La Ville.

So a little tennis fairy tale had come true, because Adochitei could not necessarily be counted on as Prüger’s successor at the HTT French Open, despite his well-known skills. The young Romanian had only won one match at HTT Grand Slam level before, namely the first round duel at the HTT Australian Open 2016 against a certain Sebastian Hickl. That was it with the major glory of Eric Adochitei, who appeared without a set loss at the most prestigious tournament on the scene, and in the latest issue of the HTT Computer Ranking he can celebrate his career high ranking in 12th place. Shortly processed the logical disappointment after a lost final, Christoph Niedhart was also able to draw a satisfied balance about his HTT French Open appearance. With a title win, the 34-year-old would have become the second oldest HTT French Open winner in history, and only the fourth player of the Open era after Alexander Geisler, Gabriel Jovanovic and Johannes Loibl, who would have won an HTT Grand Slam tournament without ranking. But even without these statistical titles, the Army TC Star has performed exceptionally well in the second HTT season major. To reach the final without match practice, without tournament rhythm in a fantastic field, is worthy of all honours.