ATP Challenger Tulln: Erler and Miedler reach the double semifinals
While Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler reached the semifinals at the ATP Challenger tournament in Tulln, all Austrians were eliminated individually.
by p.m
last edit: Sep 08, 2022, 08:52 pm
After his two victories in qualifying and those over Dennis Novak and Felipe Meligeni Alves, the 24-year-old number 300 in the world, Slovakian Lukas Klein, did not make it easy for his fifth opponent in Tulln either. With the wind getting stronger and stronger, the proven offensive player had to bow to the equally safe and poisonous topspin shots of Sweden's Elias Ymer. In the end, the number 4 of the ATP Challenger tournament in Tulln had the upper hand relatively clearly with 7: 5 and 6: 3.
In Friday's semifinals, the newly crowned number 99 in the ATP ranking does not have to deal with Jurij Rodionov, but with his conqueror Jozef Kovalik. In contrast to the Austrian, the 29-year-old Slovak had a dream start. In particular, the serve of the man from Bratislava kept what he had promised with the success over number 2 seeded Tseng and, until he gave up, against opponent Gakow. "That was definitely the key! While Jurij acted somewhat incorrectly at the beginning, both the service and the return worked for me right from the start. And that even when he was able to improve in the second set," said number 201 in the tennis world, who had just lost to Jurij Rodionov in the first qualifying round for the Grand Slam in Wimbledon. He largely shares the analysis of his conqueror: "In fact, he really played great from the start. Unfortunately, I still don't feel physically at 100 percent after the infection I just got over."
Ofner is subject to Gombos
At the upper end of the Tulln tournament grid, Jelle Sels, a qualifier, made it into the semi-finals. However, the 27-year-old Dutchman with the elegant, one-armed backhand benefited from the injury-related resignation of his Italian opponent Giulio Zeppieri with a 6:3 and 3:1 lead. The right-hander from the cheese town of Woerden then had to wait longer than planned for his semi-final opponent. The tough exchange of blows between Sebastian Ofner and the Slovakian Daviscupper Norbert Gombos was canceled due to a downpour at the score of 6:1, 3:6 and 1:2.
After a two-hour break, the start again under completely different conditions. Ten degrees less on the center court, which was perfectly restored by the Tullner volunteers and the experts from Sportanlagenbau Tikale, but is now significantly slower, obviously felt better for Norbert Gombos after the restart. The young father from Bratislava prevailed 6:2 in the third set and was then very happy about his semi-final entry. “After I was mentally able to put up with my terrible start, my game went much better despite the slower conditions. Reaching the semifinals is great for my points tally because I'm close to going back into the top 100," said the current number 114 in the world.
Nevertheless, there were Austrian successes on this Thursday, which was so mixed in terms of weather. Sam Weissborn and Maximilian Neuchrist won the doubles quarterfinals against the Uzbek-Ukrainian duo Sanjar Fayziev and Vladyslav Manafov 7:6 and 6:1. They thus fixed a semi-final in red-white-red for Friday and thus also a domestic participation in the final. Tulln's local hero Lucas Miedler and his Tyrolean partner Alexander Erler then once again lived up to their position as number 1 and defeated their compatriots Kopp/Krainer 6:3 and 7:5. The Slovakian duo Klein/Zelenay will play the Czech-Ukrainian duo Kolar/Molchano in the second doubles semi-final on Friday.