Generali Race to Kitzbühel 2023: between rain and records
Last weekend, Austria's largest and most prestigious amateur tennis event picked up speed again eight months after the glamorous finale of last year's edition of the Generali Race to Kitzbühel. A report by CL
by Claus Lippert
last edit: Apr 20, 2023, 07:53 pm
The Generali Race to Kitzbühel, which is extremely popular with hobby tennis players of all ITN shades, is entering the next round and made a good start with the kick-off event in Vienna last weekend. Italy low "Rudolf" caused a rainy and dreary outdoor ambience due to the weather, but this could not stop 181 players from 18 different nations from celebrating a tennis festival at the start of the Generali Race to Kitzbühel 2023. With a waiting list of 21 participants, the Vienna opening tournament on the Altmannsdorfer branch at the Union Tennis Center La Ville was even able to announce a new record entry result. Just under 70 of the 181 amateur tennis players interested in the Generali Race to Kitzbühel start even came from the federal states, so a red-white-red mix of amateur players with ITNs between 3 and 10 was guaranteed and ensured six magnificently filled draws.
"Vienna is different", the provincial cracks who had traveled from all corners of Austria were confronted with this remark on the various motorway routes on the outskirts of the federal capital. The motivated people from Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Burgenland, Salzburg, Styria and Carinthia who came to Vienna also noticed that Vienna is different when they took a look at the tournament grid and at the same time at the weather models on their smartphones this weekend. 181 players and Rudolf the Italian deep, somehow it didn't go together at all. In the end, it needed a location that had been tried and tested for large events. Three and a half of the six tournament days literally fell through, but thanks to the excellent infrastructure of the UTC La Ville with a spacious tennis hall, part of the game program on the first two tournament days could be brought to dry land. When "Rudolf" had dealt with the stubborn and rather wet low in Italy on Saturday evening, a man named Mirsad Beganovic stepped into action. The course master of the UTC La Ville is not only an expert when it comes to "course cosmetics", but also someone with heart and great passion for his job. And so the most important man of the weekend, sitting on his tractor, conjured up six ready-to-play open-air sand courts for the third day of the tournament, despite 72 hours of continuous rain.
The importance of the Generali Race to Kitzbühel in the tennis scene, the special feature of this event with the 10,000 euro winner's check for the players, not only documents the extremely long and long journey of a player, for example from southern Burgenland, but also A truly remarkable episode featuring the newly crowned first winner of the "Tiebreak-Shootout" show event that took place on the finals day and which secured the winner a year's supply of tennis balls. Just to be able to take part in this show competition with four match tie breaks played in the handicap system, Ferdinand Holdhaus from Vienna had to drive more than 600 kilometers and put up with an overcrowded, stressful daily schedule. The evening before, after winning the semifinals, "Ferdi" rushed to Salzburg, where he fell into bed tired at around 2 a.m. in order to dutifully attend a mandatory appointment at the University of Salzburg on Wednesday morning. Then back to the east of Austria, for soccer training in Vösendorf, before picking up the racquet at 9 p.m. in UTC La Ville and becoming an ITN 7 player with four victories en suite and a final success over ITN 3.0 player Luka Matic secured the tie-break shootout and a year's worth of tennis balls.
Matic, Maierhofer, Röhsner - the first winners of this year's Generali Race to Kitzbühel
So the first crystal trophies have been awarded, the first very important points in the race towards Kitzbühel have been played, so it's time to take stock of the record-breaking kick-off event of the Generali Race 2023. The first leader in the ITN 3 category is Luka Matic. The 24-year-old from Union Allhartsberg lived up to his role as a favorite with a 6:1, 6:3 win in the final over Paul Kastner from Upper Austria, who had been playing well until then. From Matic's point of view, the only drop of bitterness on the final day was losing the final appearance in the tie-break shootout, where he had left a year's supply of tennis balls. Meanwhile, Felix Maierhofer from Altmannsdorfer TC secured the title in the four-man competition of the Generali Race to Kitzbühel opening tournament without losing a set. Marco Hammerl's protégé also beat Sebastian Pallanich from TC Neuberg, who has performed brilliantly this year so far, and has taken the lead in the 4-man race with the first 10 points. Fabian Röhsner's title win in the 5-man competition turned out to be really hard work. The 24-year-old from Mauerbacher TC had won five crisp and close matches when he received his first turquoise shimmering Generali Race crystal on Wednesday evening. The Röhsner journey could have already come to an end in round 1 against the Hungarian newcomer Srdja Nikolic. With 11:9 in the match tie-break, the 24-year-old made it into the round of 16. All in all, Röhsner had to show nerves in every game in his five matches for the title, and with three tie-breaks won and two match tie-breaks won, Röhsner had to master several critical situations.
After his three successes last year, however, Erik Rakhmatulin from Kyrgyzstan failed on Wednesday evening when trying to win his fourth Generali crystal in the final. The 27-year-old hobby tennis player from Central Asia was clearly beaten by the young Italian Giuliano Wagner 0:6, 3:6 in a purely international final of the 6-man competition. The 13-year-old, who started as number 1 in the ITN 6-man competition in La Ville, plays for WAT Landstraße and thus initiated a double success of the Landstraßer Youngsters under the direction of successful coach Vladimir Vukicevic from the Vladi Vuk tennis school. Because in addition to the Italo young star, 14-year-old Nino Svoboda also trumped in the 7-man competition. Also number 1 on the seeding list, the WAT Landstraße junior completed all of his five matches brilliantly and without losing a set. Nino still seemed sad on Wednesday evening, especially since the 7:10 loss in the semifinals of the tie-break shootout against ITN 3.0 player Luka Matic had an after-effect despite a 7:0 lead.
In the end, Stefan Timofeev fixed the teenage triple at the Generali Race to Kitzbühel Kick Off Event 2023 in the ITN 8.0 competition. The 17-year-old emerged as the winner of a 64 draw and, as No. 16 in the tournament after a bye at the start, had moments of anxiety in his five games in both the quarters and semifinals and an all-important match tiebreak before he was crowned champion in the final against Peter-Jürgen Mracna with a 6:4, 6:0 success. The conclusion at the end: Despite the modest weather conditions, Vienna set a new and very impressive Generali Race to Kitzbühel participant record. The Union Tennis Center La Ville has once again confirmed its outstanding role as host and venue of major tennis events, and the Generali Race to Kitzbühel once again fully justified its reputation as the "flagship event" of Austrian tennis mass sport. By the way: The next stop in Burgenland in Neudörfl is already on Friday!