Nathalie Gratzl ends HTT Ladies’ dry spell at Mai-Challenger

Teen star Nathalie Gratzl has made her triumphal march on the red ashes of UTC La Ville, and…

Teenie star Nathalie Gratzl made her triumphal march on the red ashes of UTC La Ville, and last Tuesday afternoon – expected for many HTT insiders – she became the first female player to win the 12th edition of the May Challenger tournament. The 13-year-old from Lower Austria remained without a set loss in her fifth appearance at the 39th HTT seasonal tournament and forced comebacker Matthias Rübenbauer to his knees with 6:2, 7:6 in 1:24 hours of play. With her first HTT career title, the newly crowned HTT champion also provided some highly remarkable facts about HTT women’s tennis. From the UTC La Ville reported for hobbytennistour.at C.L

The talent factory of the tennis school Norbert Richter in Muckendorf, equipped with an almost inexhaustible reservoir of young successful tennis players, has once again brought to light a new HTT winner’s face. After the established HTT stars Martin Mayer, Mathias Wagner, Patrick Joksch, Johnny Ye, Matthias Wurzer and Nils Klermund, Nathalie Gratzl, a young lady from TK Big Point Muckendorf, has now also created a festive atmosphere in the Tullner field. The 13-year-old finished a nine-month dry spell without a female tournament victory in the final match of the 12th May Challenge at UTC La Ville with a clear two-set win over Matthias Rübenbauer, and ensured the first female tournament victory in 2018 and the first “female title” since August last year, when Bolivian Hortencia Birnbaumer kidnapped the title of the August HTT-150 tournament to South America at TC Terra Rossa with the 14th women’s title of the Open Era.

As expected, the start into the 39th season finale went wrong from both sides, especially as both Gratzl and Rübenbauer gave their final premiere. The first time on the big stage at the Centercourt with a view of the trophy hindered the two debutants in the final, who slipped nervously starting over the red ashes on the Altmannsdorf branch. Gratzl started with a double error and an early break, Rübenbauer needed four balls to confirm the early break with the game to 2-0. When Gratzl first wrote in her first HTT career finale in the third game, the teenager became looser, cheekier and more aggressive. This in turn encouraged Rübenbauer’s tendency to double errors. The 34-year-old made two at once in his second service game, which ended in a 2-2 re-break. 15 minutes later the first set was already over, Gratzl had set the course for winning the title with six games in a row and put her opponent under pressure.

Rübenbauer, who by the way celebrated his HTT debut on 12 January 2007 with a 3:6, 5:7 first round defeat against Florian Dinter at the January HTT-500 tournament, accepted the challenge “catching up” combative, and after a break orgy at the centre court of UTC La Ville took a 4:2 lead in the meantime. In the famously notorious seventh game, beet growers make several double mistakes again, which bring Gratzl back into this second set and into the game. And in this finish, the 13-year-old proves her mental class in addition to her playful abilities. After taking another 4-5 break, the teeny star played big and shone with a brilliant 5-5 praise and her first and only ace to lead 6-5. The decision was made in the tie-break, which could not have been more exciting. At first, Rübenbauer had a set ball at 6:5, which the 34-year-old missed with a forehand mistake. At 7:6, Gratzl got a taste of the title with her first match point, but “Rübe” shook a precisely placed service winner off his wrist at that very moment. But at 5:46 pm at the second match point it was time. A slice-backhand from Rübenbauer sails out, and the 6:2, 7:6 triumph of Nathalie G. was perfect.

“I am very happy about my first tournament victory at the HTT. At the beginning I was very nervous, but also extremely motivated in my first final. Especially in the first set it was extremely difficult to adjust to the ball and the shots in the strong wind,” beamed the winner, who treats herself to a Vienna blunder after a battle at the centre court. And that was highly deserved, especially as the 13-year-old, as only the 10th lady in HTT history, was able to win a men’s HTT tournament. With her success at the May Challenge, Gratzl became the 460th winner of the HTT Open era since 1990 and at 13.1 years old, “Nathie” also became the tenth youngest tournament winner in history to be included in the eternal list of the youngest HTT title winners. “Congratulations to Nathalie on winning the tournament. Unfortunately, I could not follow up my performances from the quarter and semifinal today. I think the statistics about my unforced mistakes speak volumes. You just can’t afford such a balance in a final. In the second set it got exciting at least once again, and I have to congratulate my opponent on the finish. How she reacted routinely and hard-nosed despite her young age is evidence of great class”, emphasised the underlay Matthias Rübenbauer.