HTT-Youth dominates 12th edition of the April-Challengers at UTC La Ville

While at the 27th edition of the April HTT-500 tournament on Monday already the two semifinali about…

While the two semi-finals of the 27th edition of the April HTT-500 tournament on Monday already took place, the HTT stars from the second row fought for prestigious victories and important points for the ranking list in the 12th edition of the April Challenge on the fourth day of the sand court opening at UTC La Ville only in the quarter-finals. Once again in this still young season, the youth was among the last eight of the sixth HTT-Challenger-Tournament of the year with five highly talented and playful boys. C.L reports from the UTC La Ville

The current 12th edition of the April-Challengers at UTC La Ville is once again becoming an impressive show of the HTT-youth. With the 48-year-old Bernd Genser, in today’s semifinal, only one copy from the “Routine” department will stand up to the enormous superiority of youthful tennis power. The “half Brazilian” – Genser lives in South America for up to six months a year – entered his second HTT semi-final in Baden 2017 on the fourth day of another summer match with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Bernd Neugebauer. On the way there, however, the experienced Salvadoran also benefited from a mental blackout from his opponent, who, after leading 5:2, gave away ten games en suite before being credited with two result-cosmetic games at 5:7, 0:5. Opponent of Genser in the fight for a place in the April Challenge Final will be February Challenge Champion Noah Castillo from the Dominican Republic. The 14-year-old from CTP Pötzleinsdorf prolonged his current run of success on the hobby tennis tour and celebrated his eighth HTT individual victory in series with a sovereign 6:1, 6:2 edge victory over Vonbank defeater Manuel Ali. Castillo quickly took a 5-0 lead in the first set, the rest was just a formality, just like Durcgang No. 2, in which Ali was open in the initial phase, but overall could not continue his performance from the previous day. “Noah played better, he was more patient than me, he was safer while I took too much risk. But I’m still satisfied with reaching the quarter-finals, but of course I would also have liked to have been in the semi-finals,” the defeated Manuel Ali summed up.

The best of the four quarter-final duels yesterday, however, was seen in the Night Session at UTC La Ville between 2016 HTT French Open Junior Winner Philipp Fedorczuk and Slovak young star Martin Priban from WAT Landstrasse. Fedorczuk on his HTT debut, Priban in the 25th HTT Career Tournament, and both players in great form, a varied, high-class and exciting exchange of blows developed right from the start, which garnished the audience on the terrace of UTC La Ville one after the other with many sensational rallies to enthusiasm storms. Fedorczuk started furiously into his first HTT career quarter-final, rushed away 4-0 and was soon followed by a 1-0 lead at the “small centre court” of UTC La Ville. Reverse roles then presented round number 2, in which Priban fought unconditionally and self-sacrificingly for his third semi-final appearance at the HTT in his 25th HTT career tournament, and now matched his opponent. Fedorczuk were able to make up for an early 1:4 deficit by catching up in the meantime, but the set went to Priban 6:4. Fedorczuk, who kept his nerve at 5-4, won the match in the finish of a match that brought great rallies on the line and impressively demonstrated the strength of the two young stars. “There are matches, whether you win or lose, you just have fun. And it was exactly such a game today. That was really a lot of fun,” Martin Priban said after the fantastic performance at UTC La Ville’s “2”. And the winner also took the same line: “I can only say exactly the same thing. It was so much fun. It was great to have an opponent who’s up in a minute. We had so many nice points, and that’s twice as much fun,” said victorious debutant Philipp Fedorczuk.

In the fight for his first final on the “big” hobby tennis tour, the HTT French Open junior winner has to deal with Alexander Rieger, who after initial start difficulties and 0:3 behind Alexanxder Nebel in the quarter-finals 6:4, 6:2, so that he can reach for his eighth HTT career final on Tuesday evening in the second semifinal of the April-Challengers. After his false start against fog, the 17-year-old was always master of the situation at the centre court, and won the first set with 6:4 after the mentioned 0:3 deficit and in the meantime 2:4 with four games in series. 6:4 in round no. 2 the young star of WAT Meidling let nothing burn anymore, and won the night session before the eyes of Dad Erwin at the end highly deserved with 6:4 and 6:2.