Paralympics Tokyo 2021: bitter defeats for all Austrian starters in the individual
In the first round of the Paralympic wheelchair tennis tournament, all four Austrians who started have already been eliminated in the individual.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Aug 27, 2021, 08:52 pm
The jubilation in the Austrian Paralympic wheelchair tennis team was great when it was clear that four men could qualify for the big season highlight. In addition to the domestic number one, Nico Langmann (ITF 27), and veteran Martin Legner (ITF 38), Josef Riegler (ITF 40) and Thomas Flax (ITF 51) jumped on the symbolic train to the Japanese capital. Langmann in particular wanted to mend the gap in the land of the rising sun, which he had sustained in his first game in Rio de Janeiro in the form of a clear first-round defeat.
The double competition as hope
In the end it didn't become anything for any of the quartet - at least once individually. While the 24-year-old Viennese bit his teeth with 4: 6, 1: 6 against the Belgian Jef Vandorpe, who was placed on 15, the veteran Legner even had a bitter 1: 6, 0: 6 against the 21-year-old Chinese Zhenxu Ji ( ITF 47). But also for Riegler there was nothing to gain in the 6: 0 and 6: 1 against the Dutch Ruben Spaargaren, who was listed on 16 in Tokyo. Flax also had no chance in the 2: 6, 0: 6 against South African Evans Maripa (ITF 31).
For the Austrian representatives, the double competition now remains as reparation. There, Langmann and Flax meet the Spanish duo Enrique Siscar Meseguer and Francesco Tur, Legner and Riegler challenge the South Korean duo Ho Won Im and Sang-Ho Oh.