Wolf wins his last big title before the HTT French Open

The only HTT-Top-Ten-Star, who is at the start, presented the 13th edition of the May-HTT-…

The only HTT Top Ten star at the start has won the 13th edition of the May HTT 500 tournament on Tuesday evening, and conquered his fourth title on the hobby tennis tour. The third in the ranking of the SKVS Flötzersteig Matthias Wolf defeated the shooting star of this year Maximilian Wild 7:5, 5:7, 6:1 in a playfully moderate final over three sets and 2:34 hours of play, and added the 17-year-old from UTC Stockerau to his third consecutive defeat in the final. With his 70th individual HTT career victory in the 38th final of the 2018 HTT season, Wolf was also among the favourites for the HTT French Open at UTC La Ville starting next Thursday. C.L reports for hobbytennistour.at

SKVS Flötzersteig star Matthias Wolf improved his final balance on Tuesday evening and reassigned the role of HTT French Open co-favorite. In the final of the 13th May HTTT-500 tournament, the 30-year-old was the only player to have reached the Altmannsdorf branch as the top seeded player, succeeding last year’s absentee winner Lukas Prüger with a playful, rather lackluster final performance. 47 unforced mistakes with only 19 points scored were enough to win the title, also because on the other side of the net young star Maximilian Wild with a record-breaking 86 unforced errors became noticeable.

The young star made the better start into the final of the 645th clay court event of the Open era, securing the first of a total of twelve breaks to lead 2:1. Wolf countered with the re-break to 3:3 and then it went with the serve to 5:5, whereby Wolf at 5:4 and setback earlier in the set missed the possibility of winning the set with a set ball. In the decisive twelfth game of the first set, Wild’s weakest shot on this mild May evening became his fate on his own serve. In his third HTT career final, the backhand developed into the 17-year-old’s Achilles’ heel, and with it he “transformed” Wolf’s second set point after exactly 50 minutes to 7-5.

The second round was then a difficult birth from the point of view of Maximilian Wild, who, in front of the eyes of friends and family, fogged up opportunities for the time being. Three times – 2:0, 4:2 and 5:4 – he gave up the advantage of a break, at 5:4 he even afforded the luxury of two forgiven set points. All in all, the level at the centre court of UTC La Ville was already on a downward trend when the final at least took off as far as the excitement was concerned. Wolf missed two balls to 6-5 and maneuvered to the fourth break in the second heat and finally to the third set, leading 40-15 with four mistakes in a row. After a sad 72 minutes Wolf typically finished a second movement with a forehand mistake, which was marked by a total of 65 unforced mistakes of the two final protagonists.

In the decision Wolf then played the factor “routine”, and besides his known strength at the baseline, he also brought a certain consistency into the balance when serving. The 30-year-old did not let anything burn with his own service, and finally secured the third set 6:1 with the two breaks to 3:1 and 5:1 and in only 31 minutes. with his second season title after his success at the Cash4Car Cup Wolf consolidated his third place in the HTT computer rankings and advanced to position no. 4 in the annual “Race to La Ville”. In his tenth HTT career final, six defeats so far have given him his fourth success at HTT-500 level, and a victory that gives Wolf fans hope for more. More, perhaps already at the upcoming second HTT Grand Slam tournament of the season at the HTT French Open starting next Thursday at UTC La Ville.