Gänserndorf Open celebrate successful indoor premiere of HTT Lower Austria

The wine, which operates under the flag of the Hobby Tennis Tour, made a successful indoor premiere…

The Weinviertel Tennis Tour, which operates under the flag of the Hobby Tennis Tour, celebrated a successful indoor premiere on the first weekend of March this year. With a total of 44 players and many records as well as season best performances after three exciting tournament days, the congenial tournament director duo Martin Zehetner and Kristina Glöckler was able to draw a positive conclusion after the first edition of the Gänserdorf Open 2018. The winners of the HTT Niederösterreich’s hall premiere in Marchfeld were also lucky enough to leave. Gernot Brunner won his second HTT-250 level title after last year’s February HTTT-250 victory and his fourth HTT career title, and a superbly cast Gänserndorf-Challenger surprisingly won the 17-year-old underdog David Hofmann, who secured his first HTT title in a marathon final. A report by C. L.

Older semesters probably still connect with the city of Gänserdorf, located about 20 kilometres north-east of Vienna, the famous and at that time largest safari park in Europe, which caused a lot of interest among young and old until 2003, and brought the visitors closer to the partly exotic wildlife. In 2018, the village of the many geese, first mentioned in 1115, has a completely different attraction. In the autumn of 2016, a mega hall was built and opened under the name “Sport und Freizeitcenter Stindl” on an area of 3500 square metres. And it was there that the indoor premiere of HTT Niederösterreich was staged on three carpet granulate courts on the first weekend in March 2018. On three exciting tennis days, the aces made sensational headlines on site even before the two finals. The scenery in the brand-new tennis court in Marchfeld initially shaped the “Next Generation”, which was able to convince both quantitatively and qualitatively, and with 10 players under 18 years of age made up almost a quarter of the entire field of participants. Outstanding was probably the introduction of a certain Bastian Berenz from TC Deutsch Wagram, who immediately catapulted himself into the HTT’s record books during his tour debut in the opening match of the Gänserndorf Challenger. Against seasoned Heribert Makowitsch from TC Prottes, the Kids-Star not only celebrated a commanding first-round victory and thus the first individual victory of his HTT career with 6:3,6:0, but also set a new record in the 28-year history of HTT. Never before in nearly three decades of HTT, a younger player has won an HTT singles match. With 9 years and 9 months this remarkable record now belongs to Bastian Berenz.

Two days later, the 17-year-old David Hofmann from TC Grossriedenthal set another record in the Challenger competition. A week earlier, the young Lower Austrian had made his HTT debut at the February BTT 150 tournament at UTC La Ville and, after a 6-2,7-5 win over Clemens Luksch, had made his second round. Seven days later, the HTT newcomer crowned his trip to Marchfeld with a surprising title win at the Challenger level. On the way to his first final, Hofmann presented himself in a very strong manner and did not give a single set either against the HTT experienced Michael Eder from KSV Siemens or against the two Lower Austrians Paul Schiller and Alexander Kupcik. Without a fight, the 17-year-old finally reached his premiere final via Stefan Hochhauser in the “Semi”, and in an intensively led and nearly three hours lasting finals marathon, he had perhaps the “necessary grains” more ready to win the final generation duel against the 28-year-old Sascha Rybak with 7:6,5:7,7:5. Rybak, who also “walked” into his second HTT career final without losing a set, and in the semifinal against Alexander Macek he celebrated his 45th birthday. In his jubilee tournament No. 35, he had great hopes of regaining his title for the second time after his August-Challenger victory in 2016. In the end, however, David Hofmann, the No. 937 in the HTT computer rankings for the title at the Gänserndorf CHallenger, stormed in the end and thus set a new season best performance. In 2018, no weakly placed player won an HTT tournament. All in all, his title win as No. 937 in the eternal leaderboard is enough for rank 7. By the way, the record is held by Michael Eder from KSV Siemens, who was the victim of David Hofmann in Round 1, and who triumphed as No. 1058 at the June-Challenger 2016 at Vienna’s water park. The next day, Hofmann made a giant leap from 578 places to position no. 359 in the latest edition of the Entry-List.

On the other hand, the main tournament of the event, the Gänserndorf Open 250, was less top-class and with only 14 players on average. With the Brunner cousins Gernot and Jürgen and the two-time HTT-150 champion Diego Laporta, three HTT Top 100 players came into the Marchfeld and ended up in a kind of “two-class-match”, which was a safe bet for the final. Next-Gen-Finals-Starter Diego Laporta had just lost 9 games on his way to his third HTT-Career-Finale, but the 15-year-old from TC Sparkasse Neunkirchen had to take care of his personal highlight in the semi-finals, where he beat top seeded Florian Böhm with a clear 6:1,6:2 in the 20th place. HTT individual victory in his career. In the end, however, the teenager had to admit defeat in his third HTT finale for the first time, also because his opponent Gernot Brunner had a terrific day, and in his 95th birthday, he had to give up. In the fourth career match and in the eighth final of his HTT career he secured the well-worn fourth tournament victory after the November-Challenegr 2014, the March-HTT-150 title 2015 and the February-HTT-250 triumph. The 29-year-old from TC Angern moved into the top 20 of the hobby tennis tour with his first success of the season, and in the annual ranking “Race to La Ville” he is even on the fantastic 10th place. Intermediate rank. So the season can continue from Brunner’s point of view.

In the end, the organisers’ team in the composition of Martin Zehetner & Kristina Glöckler were also satisfied:”We are very happy with the indoor premiere of the Weinviertel Tour. The location is sensational, as all participants confirmed. The number of participants has passed with 44 entries, so we have reached our goal. The performances were also ok. Especially the performance of Gernot Brunner in the final was fantastic. The presentation of Challenger winner David Hofmann was also impressive from our point of view. Considering the fact that this boy has only been playing tennis for one and a half years, this was a remarkable achievement which he offered here. The promising performances of the young players were also great to see. And the fact that we now also have a record with the youngest individual winner in the history of hobby tennis touring is the ultimate challenge for a very successful event,”summarized Martin Zehetner.