Generali Race to Kitzbühel: victories of the favorites and their qualifying worries
Halftime at the Generali Race to Kitzbühel in the eastern region, and the qualifying tournament at TV Wiener Neudorf, which ended on Sunday evening, also heralded the Lower Austria weeks, which were so exciting for all participants.
by Claus Lippert
last edit: Jun 14, 2022, 08:51 am
On three weekends in a row, amateur players looking to Wiener Neudorf for the final tournament in Kitzbühel also have "big points" in the southern part of town and the imperial city of Baden ready for the Generali Race to Kitzbühel. The appearance last weekend in the industrial district near the federal capital brought 86 entries and a missed opening day, all favorites wins, but at the same time brought to light a problem that some of the successful tournament players are currently struggling with.
Bader, Rakhmatulin, Rybak and their Quali worries
Just imagine, you have won two out of three preliminary tournaments for the Generali Race to Kitzbühel, and yet the targeted start in the Gamsstadt and the dream of the big final match on the center court in the Kitzbühel stadium for a Cupra Born car is a long way off. Ask Tom Bader, Erik Rakhmatulin or Sascha Rybak, whose path to the most legendary sports town in the Alps is still a really long and difficult one, despite their great personal performance so far and one or two double titles. And there is a simple reason for this: the ITN rating value required for the start in one of the Generali Race to Kitzbühel tournaments has fallen into a range for some of the successful participants after two or three qualification decisions, which means that they can start in the next higher category ITN class required. The points gained so far - 10 of them even for winning a title - are then practically frozen and of no use to the individual players for the further course of the qualifying tour.
#IMG2#
Clever who made tactical precautions in the Kitzbühel qualification
Players with the necessary far-sightedness have already taken tactical precautions before the first qualifying tournament and tackled the race for the coveted starting places in Kitzbühel in a better ITN category. This does not include Mr. Tom Bader and Mr. Erik Rakhmatulin, who already clinched their second Generali Race to Kitzbühel title yesterday and were able to expand their personal crystal collection. However, the two title holders did not look completely happy on Sunday evening. "It's a shame that you can't take the points as a person in every single tournament, no matter what category," said Bader and Rakhmatulin in unison, a little sad. Meanwhile: The two will make their way to the Alpine metropolis, one way or another. "Tom & Erik" are playing too well at the moment.
#IMG3#
Rakhmatulin, Bader & Holdhaus with Generali Race double pack
In the ITN 6 category, the "Kyrgyz lion" Erik Rakhmatulin, with endless fighting spirit and two successes in the match tie-break, has immediately registered his candidacy for one of the four first places in the race with his surprisingly successful title win. The 26-year-old Asian earned his 10 race points with a razor-thin opening win over Andreas Schauer, a quarter-final 6:3, 7:6 success over the top seeded Slovakian Jan Plencner, and after reaching the final without a fight he also wrestled with Miguel Marn from UTC La Ville 10:6 in the decisive match tiebreak.
Tom Bader also used his appearance in Wiener Neudorf immediately to solve the problem regarding the qualification for the final tournament in Kitzbühel. Without losing a set, the 16-year-old won his second title of the season and a very important first 10 points for the race classification of the ITN category 7.0, in which, by the way, 6-man champion Erik Rakhmatulin is still in the lead with 16 points. Another two-time champion may shortly face said ITN problem. We are talking about Ferdinand Holdhaus, who won the second title in a row in a sovereign manner after only playing eight games in the course of the tournament that ended on Sunday, but now has to leave the ITN 8 category. After all, the 22-year-old from WAC can do that with 20 points in the intermediate classification, but he has no guarantee of a final ranking of 1 to 4 either.
#IMG4#
US stronghold Michael Juritsch is already planning his travel route to Kitzbühel
However, it would have to be hell if Michael Juritsch, after winning the title in Wiener Neudorf in the category 5.0, should not qualify for the final Generali Race Showdown in Kitzbühel. After two defeats in the finals at the two opening events at UTC La Ville, the US giant was finally able to conquer its first Generali Race title on Sunday afternoon in midsummer conditions at UTC La Ville and with 26 points now probably set the route to Kitzbühel. In the German-American final against Sebastian Volbert, Juritsch benefited from the resignation of his final opponent, who decided not to continue the match when the score was 4:6, 0:2 to protect his knee.
Meanwhile, ITN 4.0 Champion Christian Hauer would like to settle an account with Kitzbühel. Last year, the 33-year-old had to leave Gamsstadt empty-handed and completely unsuccessful in both the HTT and the tie-break shootout final tournament in singles and doubles. "It would be a nice story if I could return all the more successfully this year," said the man from TC Waldtennis Bad Vöslau, who had to knock out two young south-eastern Europeans on the way to his first 10 race points. In the semi-finals, he lost to the Kosovar Egzon Brestovci in two sets, before he made the long-awaited title win perfect in the final against Frenkli Qarri from Albania.
#IMG5#
Golfer Stephan Rodler from TC Strebersdorf gives the competition a disadvantage in the ITN 9.0 competition
By the way: Golfers who are used to achieving their sporting goal with as few strokes as possible can also be successful tennis players who usually need quite a few strokes in the category in which Stephan Rodler triumphed on Sunday afternoon a point is scored with the small yellow felt ball. The 35-year-old demonstrated with his triple pack on Father's Day that Stephan Rodler from TC Strebersdorf can handle the racket in his hands on red ash just as well as he can with the iron on the green. Instead of "18 holes" this time it was three matches, six sets and a match tie-break before he increased his felt ball handicap to ITN 9.0 against Messrs. Lemberger, Hanika and Bennier. By the way: The next qualifying tournament in the eastern region, the Generali Race to Kitzbühel, will continue in the southern part of the city as early as next Friday.