Generali Race to Kitzbühel: Great tennis in the "sulphur metropolis"
The time will soon come: Then the winner of the Generali Race to Kitzbühel 2022 will be rewarded with a Cupra Born. Points were again awarded in the spa town of Baden last week.
by Claus Lippert
last edit: Jun 28, 2022, 06:42 pm
"It was very nice, I was very happy", this world-famous quote comes from Emperor Franz Joseph, who made the spa town of Baden his personal summer residence in his time, and thus also contributed to the current position of the spa town on the thermal baths line. A century later, Baden near Vienna is associated with a livable city on the edge of the Vienna Woods, with a lot of history, even more annual hours of sunshine and countless leisure opportunities to enjoy life. And once a year, the "Sulphur Metropolis" is also the venue for the Generali Race to Kitzbühel, which brings us back to the Kaiser quote we used at the beginning: "It was very nice, I was very happy". That was the case on the last weekend in June 2022 for many players and the entire event - held at Badener AC.
BAC as the perfect host for the Generali Race to Kitzbühel
It was really very nice, a successful event with a constantly striving and well-prepared host club, and with consistently pleasant and likeable tennis players, who again came from 44 clubs and 3 federal states, ensured 107 entries, and the conclusion event of the Lower Austria Weeks at the Generali Race to Kitzbühel. The beautiful tennis facility of the BAC in Badener Dammgasse was decked out for the penultimate act of the Generali Race to Kitzbühel in the hotly contested eastern region, and hot was also the keyword for the external conditions that the stars of the Generali Race physically attacked last weekend pushed their limits. Well over 30 degrees in the shade, probably around 50 degrees in the June sun on the five match courts of Badener AC, the Kitzbühel aspirants atoned for many a sin from Friday to Sunday.
#IMG2#
Christian Hauer takes second Generali-Race title in the 4.0 competition
But let's now come to our almost weekly Generali Race to Kitzbühel review and work through the performance and results of the Baden starters chronologically. "It was very nice and I was very happy," said Christian Hauer from the spa town with certainty. With his second title in the ITN category 4.0 after Wiener Neudorf, the 33-year-old has probably acquired his fixed ticket for the final tournament in Kitzbühel and Going alongside the absent season dominator Inas Sarajlic and the German youngster Milan Volbert, who failed in the semifinals in Baden . Hauer remained very confident on the way to the title and only had a little trouble in the first set of his semi-final against Jonas Groß-Hessenberger from Upper Austria. In the final it was a clear 6:1, 6:1 over Wiener Neustadt debutant Marco Pinter.
#IMG3#
Volbert's first title and Rakhmatulin's winning streak is over
Who would have thought? In the ITN category 5.0 there was a black-red-gold tournament victory and the first crystal of the German tennis family Volbert. However, as was generally expected, son Milan was not responsible for the Volberts' first Generali Race to Kitzbühel title with his hammer forehand, but it was Papa Sebastian who brought home the first turquoise shimmering living room decoration on Sunday with a show of strength and a successful brace brought. After a bit of "Drama & Piefkesaga" after his semi-final appearance on center court against Tyrol's Otto Gstir, the 54-year-old from the Münsterland left nothing to chance in the final and won the title against Thomas Womser from Wiener Neustadt with 6:3 and 7: 5 home.
So "Sebi" also has his ticket for the Tyrolean final tournament in his hands. In the 6.0 competition, meanwhile, the winning streak of the Kyrgyz high-flyer Erik Rakhmatulin, who would have loved to have made the Lower Austria triple pack perfect after his title double in Wiener Neudorf and Südstadt last weekend in Baden, ended after 12 Generali in the semifinals individual race victories in a row was stopped by Andreas Schauer. The 39-year-old from Lower Austria had already eliminated the number 1 of the tournament with Sascha Rybak a round earlier and only lost out in the final against Markus Sellmeister after losing the match tiebreak.
#IMG4#
Tom Bader - In a league of his own with 13 individual wins and 4 titles
Speaking of triple pack! The young Viennese Tom Bader made it in the ITN category 7.0. The 16-year-old from Hietzinger TV is playing in a league of his own these days in summer 2022, and within two weeks has secured his starting place in the final tournament in the Gamsstadt with three tournament wins and 30 race points. In the final on Sunday afternoon in the "Backofen BAC", Bader also let surprise man Andreas Mick jump over the blade 6:1, 6:0, and with this runaway victory he already had match success no. 13 en suite and Generali Race title no. 4 in a row to each other. However, the successful teenager is not only reaping praise from his followers, but also initial criticism from the competition, which shakes its head "not amused" about the current ITN value of the serial winner.
#IMG5#
Strong ladies dominate the 9er competition
In the ITN 8.0 competition of this year's Generali Race to Kitzbühel, a new "player" came into play in Patrick Schwarzinger last weekend for the four qualifying places in the eastern region. And that was quite powerful, because the 17-year-old from UTC La Ville, who works full-time as a passionate cook, served the competition his own soup. His final victory over Stephan Rodler, who was playing with a bad headache, was worth 10 points, so Schwarzinger heaved himself into the top 4, and before the sixth and last qualifying tournament in the eastern region in Burgenland, he can seriously take a trip to the beautiful Tyrolean country ogling.
#IMG6#
Last but not least, there is the ITN 9.0 competition, which this year is all about the female gender, and before the final event in Neudörfl sees no fewer than three women at the top of the race ranking. The shooting star par excellence is called Carina Flammer. The 25-year-old from the wonderful Waldtennis Club in Bad Vöslau took advantage of the ladies' bonus offered for the first time this year and recommended herself for the final tournament in the Gamsstadt with a final entry in the southern part of the city and winning the title in Baden with 18 points.