In front of a full house, the ÖTV youngster made it to the quarter-finals of the ATP Challenger in Mauthausen.
Tennis festival in red-white-red: Almost 600 visitors saw a great local hero on the Center Court in fantastic weather at the Danube Upper Austria Open powered by SKE (May 5th to 12th). Joel Schwärzler (ATP 743) sat down In a high-class round of 16 match at times, he won 6:4, 6:2 against the 18-year-old Spaniard Martin Landaluce (ATP 323) and is the second Austrian after Filip Misolic (ATP 201) to reach the quarterfinals of the ATP 100 clay court challenger . There the Vorarlberger will meet the Bulgarian Dimitar Kuzmanov (ATP 260), who won against Lukas Neumayer (ATP 211) 2:6, 6:2, 6:0.
Inspiring, ripped off and a playful fireworks display – that’s how you could describe Schwärzler’s performance against Landaluce. The ÖTV contract player, personally looked after on site by ÖTV sports director and Davis Cup captain Jürgen Melzer, delivered an impressive performance on the center court of the Danubis tennis center in Mauthausen and clearly enjoyed the loud support from the stands were filled to capacity. After 1:18 hours, the number one in the ITF Junior Rankings celebrated a confident victory. “The match was good. I started well and things went great. He then gave me a few small gifts during the game, which I was able to consistently take advantage of. My goal was to play his forehand with a lot of speed. We knew he had problems there. This was achieved in both sentences. It’s my first Challenger at home this year and it’s really cool. The atmosphere was impressive and I really enjoyed it. That leaves you wanting more. “I want to stay in the tournament as long as possible this week,” revealed Schwärzler after reaching the second quarterfinal of his career at Challenger level.
In the last game of the day, Schwärzler experienced another success. In the double quarter-finals, Harder and Viennese Neil Oberleitner prevailed against the Brazilians Orlando Luz and Fernando Romboli 6:4, 6:4. Now the two will meet the second-seeded Germans Constantin Frantzen and Hendrik Jebens in the semifinals. For Schwärzler, in only his fourth appearance at this level, it is the first ATP Challenger semi-final participation in a double competition.
Neumayer is defeated after the sentence
The first individual of the day was tough. Neumayer started brilliantly, dominated Kuzmanov in all phases of the first set and won it confidently. The Bulgarian then changed his game, slowed down and reduced his error rate to practically zero. The two-time Austrian national champion then had to take a back seat in the decisive rallies. In the end, Kuzmanov showed himself to be tough and made it to the quarterfinals. “I am very happy that I made it through this round. Lukas played really well, didn’t make any mistakes and put me in trouble with his aggressive play. So I had to change something. I then found my rhythm more and more, took my time and consciously slowed down many things. “That helped me, that’s how I found my way back into the game,” said Kuzmanov.
Before his next task in the form of Schwärzler, Kuzmanov showed respect: “It will be a great challenge, even though I know that the audience will be on his side,” he explained and did not hold back on his words of praise: “The tournament is great. A great organization, an incredible facility – a perfect overall package. You rarely find a level like this at Challenger level.” While the 30-year-old was happy about his victory, Neumayer struggled with his missed opportunity: “I was really good in the first set and had a good flow. Then he changed his game, and I didn’t have the right answer. Dimitar played more slices and worked more with changes of direction – then the game tipped over. It wasn’t so easy for me mentally anymore. Annoying, but doesn’t help.”