Zusana Sopkova provides for sensation with Wr. national championships

With a fist-sized surprise in the women’s competition of the Vienna State Championships yesterday…

Yesterday, Wednesday, the third match day was staged with a huge surprise in the women’s competition of the Vienna State Championships. The only 14-year-old super talent Zusana Sopkova of TC Kalksburg duped Vienna’s No. 2 and the “2” of the tournament Lara Kaiser of TWR 21 7:6, 6:1 in the quarter-finals and caused the next sensation after her opening success over Liz Keller. One of these was also in the night session at the “Stars for you Court” of UTC La Ville in the air, where Austria’s No. 7 Selina Pichler struggled for a hard-fought victory over Roxi Repasi, which was only fixed in the tie-break of the third set. Also in the semifinals are title favourite Carolina Ilowska and Jovana Peric, who seems to be in top form. For hobbytennistour.at reports from UTC La Ville C.L

Vienna’s No. 1 Selina Pichler of TWR 21 and U16 national champion Roxi Repasi delivered a night session yesterday evening at the “Stars for you Court” of UTC La Ville, which you will never forget as a spectator. Let’s make some playful concessions, that’s how great cinema was in terms of the excitement and drama of a tennis match. Pichler and Repasi met at eye level for a total of 3:22 hours and drove the tension to immeasurable heights with two played tie-breaks. Repasi had taken the lead 7-6 and recovered quickly after a relatively clear second set loss when the two young ladies fought a big fight under floodlights. One who ended up happy for Pichler and had a very bitter ending ready for the bravely fighting opponent. Repasi not only “could” have won this game, but perhaps even “had to”. After all, the 14-year-old missed a total of 5-4 and 6-5 match points in the decisive set before Pichler thanked her with a 7-4 tie-break after the fourth match point, thus safeguarding her chance of successfully defending her title.

Pichler thus also averted the possible double elimination of the favoured TWR 21 top duo right at the start of the Vienna State Championships. Hours before, Pichler’s club colleague and double partner Lara Kaiser had to admit a sensational defeat at the Centecourt of UTC La Ville against tennis chick Zusana Sopkova, who trains with Christian Trubrig. “Susi” as she is called among friends, went with the tailwind of her sensational opening success over Vienna’s No. 10 Liz Keller into her quarter-final duel with Austria’s No. 26, and showed no respect for her favourite opponent. With the tie-break of the first set, Sopkova had hoisted himself onto the winning road, while Kaiser, handicapped with complaints in his stomach, slipped over the centre court into early retirement.

In the semi-final, sensational girl Zusana Sopkova now has to deal with top form Jovana Peric, who beat Amelie Gindl from Colony Club 6:2, 6:0. Also in the semifinal round, the two experts, Carolina Ilowska, who was the top favourite for the title, and who set out on Wednesday afternoon to conquer the object of desire – the wild card for the ITF Ladies future at UTC La Ville – in addition to the national championship title. The 20-year-old played two games in her victorious double against Kathi Kothmayer and Bettina Ferscha.