Prüger and Vukicevic in final duel for 2018 Tour Finals title

Lukas Prüger and Vladimir Vukicevic will play the final of the eight-match match on Saturday afternoon…

Lukas Prüger and Vladimir Vukicevic will play the final of the 29th edition of the HTT-Tour-Finals 2018 at UTC La Ville on Saturday afternoon after eight matchdays. The two 16-time tournament winners and Tour Final Champions of the past two years qualified on Friday evening for the final showdown and their fifth direct duel. After a strong performance Vukicevic won a new edition of the HTT US Open final against Philipp Jahn 6:4, 6:1, which fell short of expectations. In the disappointing final night session of the 7th matchday Lukas Prüger against Maximilian Wild won the eagerly awaited duel of HTT numbers 1 and 2 6:3, 6:0. So, for the hopefully crowning finale of the tennis year, two of the most successful players of recent years will crash into each other in the final, facing each other in a new edition of last Tuesday’s preliminary duel. From the UTC La Ville reported for hobbytennistour.at C.L

CTP Pötzleinsdorf star Philipp Jahn will finish the 2018 tennis season as the only top ten player without a tournament victory. The 26-year-old Viennese, who reached this year’s final in three of the four HTT Grand Slam decisions, was defeated by the Serbian fourth ranked Vladimir Vukicevic in a disappointing game of 4:6, 1:6 in the first semifinals of the 29th HTT Tour Final 2018 on Friday evening. The number 5 of the HTT computer ranking had got the better start, and after a strong start of both players with sovereign service games with the break to 4:2 the first seemingly clearer lead. But anyone who thought that the group winner from Pool B would now draw his circles like in the preliminary round was wrong. The exact opposite followed, because with three simple mistakes from the baseline in the following game as serve, the 26 year old started an inexplicable negative series on the center court. 14 minutes after his 4:2 lead, four games were en suite and the first set was lost from his point of view, half an hour later even the whole match lost.

Jahn had to offer the audience in the hall only one game win to the 1:2, so that altogether after his 4:2 lead a run “organized”, which reads dramatically with only one won in eleven games played. 43 unforced errors of the 26-year-old additionally document the raven-black day Jahn was caught on, and with which an incredible series found its continuation. With the Jahn out in the semi-finals, the two group winners did not make it into the final of the HTT Tour finals for the 11th time in a row. The last time the two preliminary round winners faced each other in the final of the “HTT-Finals” was in 2007, when Andreas Harbarth and Mario Kiss fought for the most important title of the year. Back to the year 2018 and to the first semifinals, whose disappointing course was the sole responsibility of the loser. Vladimir Vukicevic had shown his best performance so far in the 72 minutes on the centre court and was confident for the final showdown against Lukas Prüger. The 37-year-old achieved his 30th HTT career final and his second final at the HTT Tour Finals after 2016 with a statistically strong performance. With 20 winners and only 15 mistakes, he celebrated his 15th victory at the end of his 22nd game at the Tour Finals, which enabled the experienced player to catch up with Roman Hamm in his 6th HTT Final appearance in the eternal list of the best players with the most individual Masters victories. “That was my strongest performance, I had a clear line, a plan, and it worked,” rejoiced the 5-time Grand Slam Champion from Serbia, while Jahn sat deeply disappointed at the press conference. “I was top motivated, and the first three four games were ok, too. But then I completely lost the thread, and was just more annoyed at how bad you can actually play tennis,” the loser rumbled.

The second semi-final between the two young stars Lukas Prüger and Maximilian Wild was hardly more sparkling at the late hour of the seventh tournament day. It had already been almost expected that after only 63 minutes this 6:3, 6:0 of the ranking list first came about in the duel with his crown prince. The expectations of Wild after his heroic victory over Martin Mayer in last Thursday’s decisive preliminary round match were probably too high. Too unstable, too little constant, and too insecure after the overall weak last weeks of an actually sensational full first season, Wild also played in this highly stylized meeting of the two best in the class. The number 1 Lukas Prüger against the number 2 Maxi Wild, at the end after the 6:3, 6:0 were certainly worlds between the two HTT stars. In this lesson and in his 65th match of the season, the 18-year-old shooting star, who was ultimately defeated, never even came close to reaching his 10th finals, and so the young Lower Austrian ended his HTT premiere season with grandiose 49 individual victories, which, as mentioned last time, means the third best mark of all time.

Without shining, without convincing playfully, with a total of 7 double faults, Lukas Prüger nevertheless stormed unstoppably and for the second time in a row after 2017 into the final of the HTT Tour finals. The 20-year-old further expanded his impressive series of victories with the cantor’s victory in the semifinals. 52nd season victories at the HTT-Branchen-Besten since Friday evening. In the HTT Tour Finals, the first ranked player is still unbeaten with 8:0 victories, has not even lost a single set with 16:0 sets, and is undefeated for a total of 15 matches on the Tour. He has now celebrated 125 victories in 145 career matches, and in today’s 19th final of his extraordinary career Prüger is hoping for the 8th title in 2018. In addition, the 20-year-old has the great chance today, as only fifth player in the Open Era, to defend his title at the finals with success. Philipp Schneider did this for the last time in the 2014 season.

“I expected much more for this match against Lukas today. I was highly motivated and really wanted to win this game, but in the end it was a very bad game for both of us, and certainly not the level of numbers 1 and 2,” said the 18-year-old. “I want to reach the Tour finals again next year, and with a more consistent performance than this year I want to achieve an even better result. My match against Mayer will remain in my memory, and thanks again for this great event. It is a unique event with an unbelievable ambience, and you can consider yourself lucky to be here”, said the shooting star of the year in his concluding press conference, in which the number 1 of the HTT had its say again. “I went away the same way with a break in both sets, that was decisive. But Maxi played really fatally today and made it very easy for me to reach the final. Our first set was cruel on both sides, the second at least from my point of view a bit better”, Prüger did not spare self-criticism.