Bundesliga: defending champions win dramatic finals
Like last year, Irdning and Linz win the titles. In the end, the men from Mauthausen and the women from host KLC were left with second place.
by p.m
last edit: Sep 12, 2022, 02:25 pm
An exciting season in the Austrian Bundesliga culminated this Sunday in the Final Four at the Klagenfurt Athletics Club. Not only because the men's and women's finals were on the program, but also because of their unbelievably dramatic course. In the end, however, the winning teams were exactly the same as last year: because the men from ATV Irdning and the women from Team OÖ successfully defended their titles.
In a new edition of last year's final, the Irdningers defeated Mauthausen 5:4 after a completely open encounter up to the last rally. The women from Linz only beat the hosts of the KLC with a supposedly clear 5:2, but the decision was also only made in doubles, where both games went to the Upper Austrians in a match tiebreak.
Four championship balls fended off - a novelty
The last day of the 2022 season in the Bundesliga offered a great deal of class, excitement and drama. Especially in the men's final, which was probably the most exciting final decision in Bundesliga history. But first things first: Five of the six individual encounters went into a tie-break match, and Mauthausen managed three surprising victories in positions 1, 2 and 4. On the one hand by Alexander Erler, who took his self-confidence with him as the newly crowned double winner of the ATP Challenger in Tulln on Saturday and the former number 39 and current number 108 in the world, the German Peter Gojowczyk, 6: 3, 1: 6, 10: 7 defeated.
On the other hand by the Hungarian Gergely Madarasz (ATP 442), the ÖTV Davis Cup player Dennis Novak 6: 4, 3: 6, 13:11 defeated. On 4, the second Tulln doubles winner Lucas Miedler lost to ex-ATP top 50 player Andreas Haider-Maurer 6: 3, 4: 6, 5:10. As expected, the other matches went to Irdning: Sebastian Ofner won against Gabriel Schmidt, the German Julian Lenz against Thomas Statzberger and Filip Misolic easily against Dominic Weidinger.
All dams break
It was 3:3 after the singles. The decision was ultimately made in doubles, where Irdning was clearly to be favored with the strong German ATP professionals Gojowczyk/Lenz against Madarasz and ex-professional Weidinger. But it was here of all places that the big drama took place: "We came very close to losing that," said Irdning's team captain Erich Reisinger. "At 5:9 in the match tie-break, Mauthausen had four match balls, four master balls, so to speak. At that point I almost didn't believe in it anymore. But hope dies last, and with the support of the opponent, who missed two matches at match point, we still turned it around. It has never happened before. The nerves are on edge,” Reisinger breathed through after the incredible thriller. With
6:7, 7:6 and 12:10 Gojowczyk/Lenz had the better end for themselves and the club from Styria on their second match point, after which all dams broke.