Lukas Neumayer at the Challenger in Salzburg: "The rain was helpful today"
Huge success for Lukas Neumayer in front of a home crowd. The 19-year-old Austrian clinched his first win over a top 100 player in the second round of the Salzburg Open on Thursday afternoon.
by Florian Army from Salzburg
last edit:
Jul 07, 2022, 08:53 pm
In the best Fritz Walter weather at the foot of the Eastern Alps, Neumayer defeated the 62nd in the ATP world rankings and number 1 in the ATP Challenger 125 clay court tournament, Arthur Rinderknech from France, 7: 5, 6: 3.
The rain in the city of Mozart should still play a decisive role and help Neumayer iron out a classic false start. When the teenager saw the score at 3:5, the match was interrupted and Neumayer used the break to focus again. After that, the world number 439 showed impeccable tennis. Supported by a good 800 spectators on the center court of the Salzburg Tennis Club, Neumayer not only fought back from a break deficit, but also impressively continued his successful run and was able to celebrate his greatest triumph to date after one hour and 26 minutes of play, to enthusiastic applause from the audience celebrate the tour.
Solid tennis and mental strength as the key to success
"He tried a lot to throw me off plan, but I stayed very calm and showed my best tennis in the important moments," commented Neumayer, who has also been looked after by a mental coach for several years, when the drizzle started again in the Connection his game.
“Actually, I'm not a fan of stoppages, but in today's case the rain helped as I got a good restart afterwards. Beating a top 100 player is really cool and shows that hard work is paying off. I knew before that I could beat anyone. But this success gives me a bit of extra self-confidence," explains Neumayer. He has been training at Günter Bresnik's tennis academy in Südstadt for about a year and a half. On the tour, Neumayer will be accompanied by his youth coach Gerald Kamitz, who took him under his wing when he was ten years old.
"I started the match very badly and conceded a break early on, which is exactly what I didn't want. After that, I served well, played powerfully with the forehand and showed one of the best sentences I've ever played."
Season goal almost cracked
After his first two successes on the ITF World Tennis Tour in Antalya, Turkey in February of this year, the blond boy from Radstadt stormed from 660th place to the top 500 in the ATP world rankings.
“Before the season, the goal was to be in the top 300. That remains the case. If it gets better, all the cooler,” explained a visibly relaxed Neumayer and added that it is now important to establish oneself on the ATP Challenger Tour.
In his first quarter-finals at this level, Neumayer, who, alongside Roger Federer, also cites Casper Ruud as a role model, meets the extroverted Frenchman Corentin Moutet on Friday.
With another success, the Austrian youngster would come a big step closer to his goal.