Generali Race to Kitzbühel: A sweaty affair at the foot of the Wilder Kaiser
Now the hobby tennis players of Western Austria have made their season premiere at the Generali Race to Kitzbühel behind them and at the same time registered their entitlement to the mega main prize - a 150 hp Cupra Formentor that costs 34,000 euros.
by Claus Lippert
last edit:
Jun 23, 2021, 12:31 pm
by Claus Lippert
On the past and midsummer weekend in the beautiful Tyrolean Unterland, players from Salzburg, Vorarlberg, Tyrol, Vienna, Burgenland and Bavaria flocked to the picturesque Going tennis club to collect important points for the "Race" in Gamsstadt at the foot of the Wilder Kaiser. The fourth tournament as part of the Generali Race to Kitzbühel 2021 brought the reunion with an "old" acquaintance, an impressive demonstration of power by the Kitzbühel tennis youth and many an exciting story that shows the unbelievable hardships of one or the other hobby player to participate in largest amateur tennis tournament in Austria.
Midsummer bonfires, midsummer heat and the Kitzbühel tennis youth festival
The evening of the second day of the Generali Race to Kitzbühel in Going came to an atmospheric end. It was the evening and the beginning of the night when the mountains shone in Tyrol. The longest day of the year in Tyrol is traditionally celebrated with the burning of the so-called solstice fires, a custom that is even a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The midsummer bonfire is accompanied by the change of seasons from spring to summer. The summer in Tyrol had long since arrived and, as a real midsummer, made the participants of the Going Qualiturnier sweat a lot. Lots of sunshine and sweaty temperatures well above 30 degrees made the Generali Race starters real heroes. Young and old braved the tropical heat, although the youngsters naturally got along better with the challenging conditions. And so in the end the triple success of the Kitzbühel youth in ITN categories 6, 7 and 8 was not particularly surprising.
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Koller, Briegel and Lintner - Kitzbühel rough diamonds in the rush of victory
In the 8-man competition, the top seed Fabian Lintner impressively lived up to his role as a favorite. Without losing a set, the smallest in the field was the biggest at the end and shone with the Tyrolean summer sun with a shimmering turquoise crystal in his hands. With Martin Trixl at the start and Alex Wieser in the finals, Lintner had thrown both Going local heroes out of the competition and also didn’t miss out on Innsbruck’s veteran Kurt Trachmann in the semifinals. Lintner thus concluded the festival of the Kitzbühel tennis youth, which the day before Germany's young star Rafael Briegel in the service of TC Kitzbühel had initiated. The 13-year-old from Bavaria, who had already left his mark on Goinger Boden last year with his first tournament victory, demolished Thiersee's Harald Toplitsch's hopes of winning titles in front of his parents in the final of the 6-man competition. But "Rafi" delivered his hussar piece in the semifinals against Sebastian Staudacher from Innsbruck, when, in the style of a veteran "cool & ripped off", he steered the opponent from the Tyrolean capital, who played bombastic in the first sentence, onto Loser Street in the second round. In the decisive match tie-break, Briegel had long since annoyed his opponent and secured his successful title defense with a confident 10: 3. The third from the Kitzbühel rough diamonds collection who was allowed to leave the TC Going at the foot of the Wilder Kaiser with a turquoise crystal was also 13-year-old Tim Koller, who, among other things, beat number 1 in the 7th Albert Sommerer competition without losing a set and in the Final the "Derby" against his club colleague Christopher Engel won.
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Manuel Kreidl is back and very successful
The meeting with an "old" friend brought the ITN 4 competition. Manuel Kreidl from TC Kolsass was the great hero two years ago who, as part of the ATP 250 tournament in Kitzbühel, started the journey home to the middle of the Lower Inn Valley as the winner of the amateur tournament in a brand new car. The 20-year-old is still driving his winning car and apparently the garage in his home town of Schwaz seems big enough to be able to park another vehicle in it. "The new Cupra looks great," said the champion from 2018 and took the first ten points in the Race to Kitzbühel by winning the title. Then the man who wrote his personal story from the ball boy to the winner of the world record-breaking amateur tournament with 320 participants from ten nations in 2019 also gave us tips for all participants in the Generali Race on how to win such a "huge thing" . More on that later.
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1000 kilometers to successfully defend the title
What remains is the story that was the most impressive for the tournament director about the Generali Race to Kitzbühel at the TC Going. Travel strains without end, just to be part of the tournaments that have been popular for years with incomparable scenic, social and sporting flair. There are Florian Fringer and Dragan Vrabec from beautiful Vorarlberg. The Ländle duo from Lauterach accepted a five-hour journey by train and bus. With four defeats and zero victories, the trip to Tyrol was of course not worth the trip from a sporting point of view. At least they saw each other again and especially Dragan Vrebac will intensify his training for the second edition in July. The native Bosnian came to Going already "well-trained" as the 27-year-old had cleared Lauterach's only hard court from the snow every day during lockdown times and played tennis without end. Speaking of endless: kilometers without end, namely just over 1000, the Briegel family reeled off between Munich, Kitzbühel and the tennis club high above Going on the tournament weekend to help their son Rafael successfully defend his title. Mama Elke is the program coordinator at the Generali Open in Kitzbühel and makes sure that everything runs smoothly at the ATP tournament. And perfect coordination was probably also necessary to bring the son's extensive travel program under one roof this past weekend. In the end, it was just over 1000 kilometers that Papa Briegel reeled off as a chauffeur between the championship in Germany and the tournament in Austria. This is called true love for tennis.