Prelude to the 29.

Friday 12. January 2018, the hobby tennis tour starts after a break of four and a half weeks in the…

Friday 12. January 2018, the hobby tennis tour starts after a break of four and a half weeks into the already 29th season. Season since its foundation in 1990, and it does so right at the start with an uninterrupted boom and 105 participants from 14 different nations. The 17th. The season opening at Altmannsdorf’s Altmannsdorf branch, which is endowed with 500 points for the victory, is regarded as the first competition of the top players after the Christmas break and as a dress rehearsal for the HTT-Australian Open, which starts next Thursday. In the past 17 years, however, Patrick Schwing (2005), Andreas Harbarth (2010) and Alex Stokker (2017) have only won the title at the first Grand Slam Tournament of the year in the following week. Whether the Saion opening tournament at UTC La Ville lacks the “celebrity density” of top ten stars is, however, only a rumour. Nevertheless, the start into the new tennis year is not overloaded. We take a look at the favourites – a report by C. L.

At first glance, the sighting of the starting grid at the 17th minute of the race may be interesting. It’s no wonder, though, that there is only one top ten star and only three players from the HTT-Entry-List’s acute Top 20. In any case, however, it is a deceptive gaze, because even without the HTT elite, which shines in its absence, the 304. HTT-500 tournament of the Open era in terms of quality. Alexander Schager holds up the flag of the missing HTT Top Ten giants. The sixth place in the ranking goes into the season opener in a top seeded manner, and due to this fact alone is regarded as one of the top favourites for the first major HTT title in the new year. And the current October HTTT-500 winner from Leoben will start fully motivated in his January HTTT-500 premiere, the 22-year-old Styrian would like to make sure to forget his messed-up appearance at the HTT Tour finals more than a month ago. Immediately behind Schager, Anton Würflingsdobler is another HTT-Bundesländer-Star and an extremely interesting player as number 2 in the January RTT 500 tournament. The 24-year-old Upper Austrian, winner of the Olympic gold medal last summer, is regarded by many HTT insiders as the first contender for the title. The reasons for this are certainly his achievements, which he convinced in the second half of the previous season, and among others HTT caliber such as the 3-time HTT-wimbledon winner Vladimir Vukicevic, the 2-time master winner Philipp Schneider or the current HTT-tour finals finalist Matthias Wolf.

With the French Kitzbühel finalist Franz Lukas, Hietzinger Maximilian Berger and CTP Pötzleinsdorf, who are playing under the Norwegian flag, Philipp Jahn, a powerful and promising trio has set out to pursue the two top-set German state stars. One of the players who knows how to successfully compete in this first 500cc tournament at the beginning of the tennis year is Martin Mayer. The 35-year-old Lower Austrian from TK Big Point Muckendorf started his most successful season to date in 2014 with a victory at the January HTT 500 tournament, culminating in three Olympic gold medals at the end of the season. These days, players such as Markus Neuhauser or Maximilian Wild should always be in the spotlight. Although the two lack an appropriate HTT ranking, their ITN rating is sufficient to be included in the select circle of favorites.

The HTT family is eagerly awaiting a long-awaited comeback, namely that of Serve & Volley god Bernhard Scheidl, who dares to compete at the start of the season for the third time in his career at the January HTT 500 tournament. 238 days later, Burgenland’s tennis figurehead was missing due to a persistent virus illness, before it is now over seven months old. But before the 37th. Career tournament start of the 32-year-old new settler naturally many questions stand in the air! How fit is the Burgenländer, who is noisy in the ranking to position no. 73, again after his compulsive puase, and how playful he is away from the absolute HTT leadership. In 2015, Scheidl stood here at the January HTTT-500 tournament in the semi-finals, before he reached the biggest coup of his career to date, and the competition at the HTT-Australian Open with Serve & Serve. Scheidl’s only tournament win so far, and adding a second title win to the major triumph in January 2015, is unlikely to be the time this weekend. But the HTT community is very happy that “Serve & Volley” is finally being celebrated again in the circuit. And this from the best of his guild!