Schischlik beats local hero Koshylak for Prater Cup opener

With the great triumph of Bernhard Scheidl on Wednesday afternoon, this year’s…

With the great triumph of Bernhard Scheidl on Wednesday afternoon the lawn season of the HTT came to an end. From now on it’s back on red ashes, and with no less than six tournaments on this holiday weekend alone, the second half of the 2018 clay court season will begin with a marathon program. And while the premiere event in St. Egyden is drawing to a close, the Challenger winner Klaus Klune has already been determined, and the 500cc competition can boast the top-class final pairing between local hero Andreas Szabados and China’s top HTT star Johnny Ye, the action is just starting in the German capital. No less than 160 players are in action at the fantastically cast Floridsdorf Open and at the second edition of the Prater Cup. For hobbytennistour.at reports from the Viennese Prater C.L

The Prater Cup and the weather, a difficult fishing as we know since last year’s edition. For players, organizers and hosts, yesterday’s opening day became the 2nd edition of the once traditional Prater Cup a deja vu. A beautiful sunny day was interrupted by a thunderstorm at 4:30 pm, and so the program of the first day of the game was really mixed up. One was quickly reminded of the previous year when the premiere of the Prater Cup became a never-ending story. A thunderstorm greeted the Leopoldstadt every day and the Prater Cup comeback lasted a whole week. Even then, the ambitious host crew saved the tournament with the fullest commitment of Man & Machine. And also this year the black-blue ones seem to be prepared. Only the driver on the heavy equipment is different this year. In addition, there is a perfectly functioning cooperation with the large neighbouring club WAC, and together the two Prater clubs will ensure that the tournament runs smoothly.

From a sporting point of view, the 250cc tableau of the Prater Cup featured three first-round events, with the match between Marcus Schischlik and local hero Alexandr Koshylak being of particular interest. The new member of the TC Strebersdorf against the young Kazakh from SV Schwarz Blau, you could expect an attractive and especially exciting start into the tournament. However, it became “only” a sovereign performance by Schischlik, who easily got rid of his opening opponent with a strong performance and a 6:1, 6:4. They expected a lot from Koshylak. The 16-year-old is currently 65th in the HTT computer ranking, has already celebrated three tournament victories in his still young career, and has already reached the semi-finals of the May HTT 250 tournament this year. However, he was apparently not yet up to the pressure of the home game, and so he literally put his 60th HTT career match in the sand of SV Schwarz Blau. Schischlik, on the other hand, is in the round of sixteen and can look forward to a day off before he will try to refresh his balance sheet on Sunday, which has been quite moderate so far. The 22-year-old has competed in 25 HTT 250cc tournaments to date, making it to the quarter-finals only four times. For the first time an HTT 250 semi-final, with the qualities that Schischlik has, should be possible.

Another very young man is still a bit away from semifinal participations in general, and that brings us to the start of the Prater Cup Future tournament, which took place with eight games. Also mentioned was a young man with a very famous surname on the HTT. Let me introduce you: Kiss, Luca Kiss. 12 years young, a tennis freak, almost meticulous in HTT statistics, the junior of HTT legend Mario Kiss demonstrates enormous fighting qualities on the court. What he still has to work on in a playful way, he does away with passion. First stage goal are the Top 1000, and then it is not such a long way to continue the success of the father. Joking aside: The footsteps Kiss Junior is following are immensely large. Papa Mario has won three Grand Slam titles in his career, including HTT-Wimbledon in 2007, before he even kept on course for the “Grand Slam” in 2008 with his major successes at the HTT-Australian Open and the HTT-French Open. The 39-year-old was also number 1, with a total of 12 tournament victories on his HTT business card. But the once so successful father puts no pressure on his son. Luca plays for fun and enjoys tennis, and she can’t help losing 0:6, 3:6 in the qualifying against David Mc Dermott.