Top favourite Sebastian Wojta and the Slovakian young star Martin Priban will compete on Tuesday evening in the…
Top favourites Sebastian Wojta and Slovakian young star Martin Priban will play the last and most important match of the Challenger Tour 2018 on Tuesday evening. The two convincing teenagers in the course of the tournament kept their chance on Monday evening with sovereign two-set victories in the semi-finals of the HTT-Challenger Tour finals for the second HTT season and career title each, and above all for the pompous winner’s cheque from a FREE tennis year 2019. Wojta finally beat February Challenger winners Noah Castillo of the Dominican Republic 6-4, 6-4, while Martin Priban was trailing Rieger conqueror Florian Mayer in both sets on his way to his second HTT final. From the UTC La Ville reported for hobbytennistour.at C.L
Sebastian Wojta of SV Haas Leobendorf, the hottest title contender of this year’s 9th edition of the HTT Challenger Tour Finals, who was traded by all insiders and experts in the run-up to the event as the hottest title contender of all, entered the final of the season’s best Challenger players at the UTC La Ville on Monday as expected and is only one victory away from the biggest triumph of his still young career to date. The 16-year-old, who won the first tournament of the “second HTT league” with the January Challenger at the beginning of the year, is on his way to winning the last Challenger event of the season. In the preliminary round against Noah Castillo, who had qualified, the junior, who trains in the Südstadt with Thiem-Papa Wolfgang, once again showed his two tennis faces. Powerful, precise and simply ingenious, the son of TV star chef Andreas Wojta always knows how to transport the little yellow Fliz over the net. From one minute to the next you also get to see the ugly side of Wojta’s game. Faulty, struggling with himself and the tennis world, “Seb” has already given away many of his matches on the tour.
Wojta started the semifinals against Castillo with a missed serve, with the 16-year-old responding immediately with a re-break, and thus did not give rise to any high feelings on the part of the dangerous opponent. As expected, Castillo kept the first set open until the end, before he conceded the decisive break at 4:6. At the beginning of the second movement Wojta demonstrated his often slumbering potential with the racket in his hand. The Lower Austrian swept over his opponent to a 3-0 lead with three sensationally played games, and perhaps the game would have been over a few minutes later if Wojta had also used one of his three break chances to 4-0 at 0:40. But there who suddenly again, the mistake producing and racket throwing young star, who had to leave to a bravely fighting and opposing Noah Castillo three games en suite to 3:3. With a strong finish and a final break to 5:3, Wojta made it to the final and will now face Martin Priban in the final of the 129th and penultimate HTT season tournament.
The Slovakian young star from the tennis club WAT Landstrasse had to deal with surprise man Florian Mayer from Hietzinger TV in his semi-final duel. The 16-year-old – last year still number 1 in the Junior Hobby Tennis Tour and big winner of the Future Finals – had sensationally eliminated the reigning defending champion Alexander Rieger in his preliminary round group, and despite a long injury break and very little tournament practice, impressively proved his reputation as a true competition type. Also in the semi-final duel with Martin Priban, in which Mayer had a better start in both sets, Mayer lost in the end, and in round 1 he registered 3:1 and in the second heat even 3:0 his right to a final ticket. But more determined on this semifinal evening was Martin Priban, who managed the important re-break in the first set to 3:3, before he fixed with three games in a row the 1:0 set lead. In the second half, Mayer led 3-0 with a break, and 4-1 thereafter, before Priban had managed the second HTT final of his career in his 70th HTT career match with five games in a row. “I have reached my goal. I wanted to get into the finals here. There I expect Sebastian Wojta to be a very strong opponent. But I will give my all and do everything in my power to win this title on Tuesday evening,” said the WAT-Landstrasse young star.