Defending champion Lukas Prüger is premature at the 29th edition of the HTT Tour Finals at UTC La Ville …
Defending champion Lukas Prüger has entered the 29th HTT Tour Finals at UTC La Ville early and as second player after Philipp Jahn into the semifinals. The first ranked player of the Schwechater TC, Vladimir Vukicevic, has won his third season duel with the 2016 Tour Final Champion for the third time after his opening victory over Matthias Wolf. Vladimir Vukicevic is unbeaten for the third time at the final tournament of the season and has thus not yet beaten seven games in the HTT season. 20 year old Vukicevic is not the winner of the group despite his 50th single win of the season, which was clearly 6:4, 6:2. This prevented HTT Tour Finals newcomer Andreas Szabados, who with his three-set success in the evening match against last year’s finalist Matthias Wolf ensured a thrilling last day of the preliminary round tomorrow, Thursday. From the UTC La Ville reported for hobbytennistour.at C.L
HTT industry primo Lukas Prüger is still on his way to a successful title defence at the HTT Tour Finals 2018, and after a 6:4, 6:2 victory over HTT US Open winner Vladimir Vukicevic in 1:13 hours of playing time, he has been unconstrained for 13 matches on the hobby tennis tour. However, the eagerly awaited duel between last year’s two Tour Finals winners at the UTC La Ville centre court fell far short of general expectations. It was not the tennis delicacy that one could expect in view of the class of the two opponents. At least there were the traditional skirmishes that Prüger and Vukicevic have been playing on court since their last meeting in the November Masters Series 1000 final.
Vukicevic clearly got off to a better start in this pre-round hit. The 3-time HTT-Wimbledon winner benefited from a large false start Prügers, who was negative with two double errors in his first service game, and also unaccustomed many mistakes from the forehand scattered. Vukiceivc took advantage of the false start of the first ranked player, held his service to 2:0, and fended off the first two break chances of Prügers on the way to 3:1. And then they suddenly faced each other again, the two 16-fold HTT tournament winners and the most successful players of this tournament in terms of titles. It is often only gestures, doubting the other’s decision for a moment and the one or other short battle of words with which the two HTT superstars show their sporting dislike to each other. Outside the course, characterized by the highest respect, the relationship of the two HTT aces on the course seems to be doubtful. Anyway, Prüger lost the version – a novelty in itself – scolded through the hall and lost fuchsteufelswild the sixth game of the first set to zero. Vukicevic was ahead 4-2, that evening he seemed ready to celebrate his second win against the first in the rankings after March 2017, but in the end it was more “appearance than reality”.
Because only 14 minutes after the 4:2 lead, Vukicevic had lost four games in a row against an actually “mentally disintegrated” opponent, and had thus long since given up the game. What was to be seen in the first games of the second set at the UTC La Ville centre court had little to do with top level and certainly nothing to do with Tour Finals tennis. The two HTT top stars stumbled from one unsightly rally to the next, Prüger started a double fault round, and Vukicevic could not make any capital out of it by acting incorrectly. Until 2:2 there was a lively back & forth BREAKEN, then all the dams broke especially at the Serbian HTT lawn king. If someone like him can’t get his service through once in a sentence, the alarm bells go off. 21 so-called unforced errors with only 7 winners, also from the baseline Vukicevic afforded himself a sporty blackout, and this against a not at all outstanding playing opponent.
Vukicevic did not succeed in his 20th single appearance at the HTT-Tour-Finals, but statistically he could set a small highlight. With 20 individual Masters games, the 37-year-old Serbian advanced to 7th place on the eternal list of the best of all HTT players with the most individual Masters appearances, and finished behind the two double HTT Tour Final winners Franz Mayrhuber and Andreas Harbarth, who also each played 20 matches in the HTT season finals. But his 40th single 2018 will not keep “Vladi” in a good memory. “I was not satisfied with my performance. That was a bit better than Sunday, but by far not enough. Fortunately, this defeat doesn’t mean so much, and I can live with it. I hope I can learn something from this game. I’ve made a lot of mistakes. Also, that another ball spoils my whole mood and the fun of the game. I almost destroyed myself with it,” said Vukicevic, who then brought a lot of explosiveness and pepper into the press conference and possibly the next games of the two HTT superstars. “I expect lucas to see things like this. But maybe I have too high expectations. Luki is a super guy, I like him very much, that is not a question and also no secret. Only I don’t know if he checks it, but as soon as it gets tight for him, he makes the wrong decisions. As soon as it gets tight, he doesn’t see so well”. A sayer with which he earned a lot of laughter from the PK in front of the assembled crowd. And on the last match against Matthias Wolf, the fourth ranked player only said briefly and succinctly: “I want to beat Matthias, and if I don’t manage it, then I haven’t lost anything in the semi-finals of this tournament. We don’t have to do long math there”.
Lukas Prüger, on the other hand, once again faced the press conference with two really strong statistical top brands. First of all, there’s his 50th individual win of the season. In the long 29-year history of the HTT, this is the second best brand a player has ever celebrated in a year of victories. Only Damian Roman, who crowned his super season in 2016 with incredible 61 individual victories, sits enthroned above him. And with his early entry into the semifinals, the 20-year-old prolonged his Super Series with 23 tournaments in a row on the three highest HTT levels in which he reached at least the quarter-finals. “That sounds very good, but the match today had a very modest level, and from that point of view I can’t really be happy about today. The start today was completely fatal with 2 double mistakes and two forehands on the tarpaulin, and also afterwards this was a stupid situation again, where we both lost our motivation. We almost finished the match, unfortunately there was nothing more for the spectators”, said the 20 year old. And when asked about the 50 wins in 2018, Prüger concluded: “That’s already a brand that sounds pretty strong, that makes me very happy,” said the defending champion.