Philipp Jahn is the first HTT-Tour-Finals-Semifinalist to be chosen

CTP Pötzleinsdorf star Philipp Jahn also made his second appearance at the 29th edition of the H…

CTP Pötzleinsdorf star Philipp Jahn also made his second appearance at the 29th edition of the HTT-Tour-Finals 2018 with flying colours, and after his first success last Saturday over the ranked runner-up Maximilian Wild he also won his second first round game. The 26 year old defeated the 2014 HTT-Olympic Champion Martin Mayer early Monday evening after 1:46 hours of playing time with 6:3, 5:7, 6:1 in Group B, Martin Mayer won the second direct duel of the two HTT-Top-Ten-Stars. He is already the winner of Group B and thus the first semifinalist of this year’s HTT season finals in UTC La Ville before the final third round match on Wednesday against Bernhard Scheidl. Martin Mayer, on the other hand, will have to fight for his semi-final ticket in his final preliminary round match against Maximilian Wild next Wednesday. From UTC La Ville reports from the HTT-Tour-Finals for hobbytennistour.at C.L

Philipp Jahn reached the semifinals at his HTT-Tour-Finals-Premiere right away. The triple Grand Slam finalist of the season and only player of the current Top 8 field, whose sporting calling card is no HTT title win, underlined his claim to celebrate his first career title at the season finale of the best HTT players with a three-set success over Martin Mayer on Monday evening, which was highly impressive over long distances. The ranked fifth, who had already been successful against Mayer in three sets in the quarter-finals of the January HTT-500 tournament at the start of the season, conjured up a first set on the centre court yesterday evening, which was clicked to the tongue. In the very first game, Jahn achieved the early break he had hoped for, and with this in his back, the biggest player in the field served himself up in a real game frenzy. A chance to re-break fended off, Jahn increased to 2:0, while it was for Mayer on serve of his opponent already with great chances to the necessary re-break. Jahn lost only two points in his following serve games of the first set, while Mayer had to fight hard for his service games, and that at 3:5 to 4:5 also could not hold any more. With a concluding forehand return winner, Jahn had finished the first set after only 26 minutes, and set course for single season win no. 30.

Later in the press conference Jahn should describe his performance in the first sentence as one that will be necessary if he finally wants to celebrate his first title here. If you take yesterday’s Jahn match as a benchmark, it has to become even more stable and constant for the duration of an entire match. Because in the second set Jahn had lost the “flow of the first run”, and Mayer had finally thrown his great potential in every respect into the balance. The 36-year-old from Lower Austria needed four match balls to equalize to 1:1 at the beginning, but with the first break to 2:1 Mayer had arrived playfully in his second Masters career single. With great point wins, the Muckendorfer demonstrated his class and in the meantime even went 3:1 away, before Jahn again took over the command at the Centercourt. It went, however, damn close to the middle of the second set, in which Mayer first at 3:2 lead and own serve a 40:0 frivolously gambled away. At 3:3, Mayer once again had a break chance, but the eighth ranked player does not have to reproach himself, because Jahn served in this important phase again as if from a single mould.

Jahn went out of this tight and competitive phase with a 5:3 lead, and looked like the sure winner at that moment, especially as he was ready to serve. The time came when this match became special and Mayer proved his skills as a fighter. Jahn had scored two match points before he had a faux pas with consequences at the second one. For incomprehensible reasons, Jahn targets a ball that is actually flying into the out, transports the small yellow felt into the net, and with this lapse is suddenly condemned to overtime at the center court. 5:4 instead of 6:3, 5:5, 5:6, 5:7, at the end Mayer hoisted himself into a set after 53 minutes with a final service winner and four games won in series. There, however, the Jahn wave rolled over the center court again. In 17 minutes, the 26-year-old had taken a 5-0 lead, leaving his opponent to play a 5-1 honorary match for the sake of a decent result, before he was able to score zero to ensure a fitting end to this highly interesting game.

“That’s how it must be if you want to win a tournament of this size,” Philipp Jahn started his second PK at the HTT Tour Finals and asked about his performance in the first set against Martin Mayer. “I was really happy with that. But you’ve also seen: Playing one set well is one thing, chasing a second set in this quality is quite another. Unfortunately, I lost the thread, played badly, and was quite insecure on the forehand. But Mayer also found a good recipe against me, played a lot of spin on my backhand, and that got me out. At 5:4, I also got the trembling hand, and then the set ran quickly in his direction,” said Jahn, who was already thinking about the rest of the tournament. “Normally the Lukas Prüger wins the other group, and therefore I will also see to it that I win my group, because you want to avoid him as long as possible as an opponent, and only have him in the final,” the ranking fifth found.

“It was basically a good match in which I defended myself with hands and feet. He’s the better tennis player, there’s no doubt about it. I’ve done what I can, annoyed him a bit, won a set, and if I play a little more consistently at the beginning of the third set, it might be a tight match. I’ll see that I can improve in the next game. But it wasn’t so easy today, when you come from a game with the Scheidl without rallies, and then the worst bullets come along in the next match. Jahn simply played great and deserved to win,” Mayer summed up.