Stadthallen Trimphators fail in Challenger Tour finals qualifier

Roland Klinger, Rares Maftei, Thomas Peyerl, Gerald Marhold, Nemanja Dejanovic, Felix Sagasser, Marc…

Roland Klinger, Rares Maftei, Thomas Peyerl, Gerald Marhold, Nemanja Dejanovic, Felix Sagasser, Marcus Schischlik and Alexander Rieger are the winners of the HTT-Challenger-Tour-Finals, which took place for the first time 8 years ago in the 2010 season, before the showdown of the best Challenger aces in 2018 took place yesterday Friday evening with the qualification and the first round of the group stage. And this with a top-class field in which the Kitzbühel champion, the Erste Bank Open winner and the defending champion Alexander Rieger will duel everything that has rank and reputation in the Austrian Challenger scene over the next five days. From the UTC La Ville reported for hobbytennistour.at C.L

The qualification for the 128th HTT Seasonal Tournament with its four elimination matches on Friday evening at the UTC La Ville showed the quality of this year’s ninth edition of the big HTT-Challenger Season Final. In order to get a place in the group stage at all, the two Erste Bank Open Challenger finalists Christian Hauer and David Hofmann also had to queue in the qualification. Up-and-coming young talents such as Noah Castillo, Martin Priban, last year’s Future Tour Final winner Florian Mayer or the best Challenger lady Nathalie Gratzl completed a qualification that guaranteed the best Challenger tennis at the Altmannsdorf branch on Friday evening.

And so it was unexpected, but not surprising, that those two gentlemen who were the envied players at the Next Gen Court of the Vienna ATP Tournament three weeks ago had to say goodbye before the upcoming group stage. Stadthalle winner Christian Hauer had to admit defeat after more than two and a half hours playing time and a steady up and down against the number 3 of the tournament Martin Prechtl, who in his 70th HTT career match thanks to a better finish fixed his main competition ticket with 6:7, 6:4, 6:4. And also Stadthallen finalist David Hofmann could only dream of the group phase of the HTT-Challenger-Tour-Finals for a short time. The Gänserndorf-Challenger-Champion had his bright moments against the Slovakian young star Martin Priban only in the middle of the second set. Too little to prevent the Baden Open Challenger Champion from winning his 35th HTT career singles victory at 7:5, 6:3.

February Challenger winner Noah Castillo was also in a class of his own, underlining his role as co-favourite against No. 3 of the Junior HTT Felix Maierhofer with 6:1, 6:1. The last qualifying match between Florian Mayer and Nathalie Gratzl also promised some explosiveness. The teenage gender duel between the former HTT Juniors-Number 1 and the Mai-Challenger-Champion Filly only lasted in the first set what was promised in the run-up. In run no. 2 Mayer roared 6:2 over Gratzl and finally entered the group stage of the HTT-Challenger-Tour-Finals 2018 with his 30th HTT career single victory.