Spring Bowl in St. Pölten - The springboard for the youngsters
From May 10th to 14th, 2022, the International Spring Bowl presented by wieninvest, the largest and most important youth tennis tournament in Austria, will be held for the 42nd time.
by p.m
last edit: May 09, 2022, 10:46 am
The game will be played on the Union Parkclub St. Pölten facility. If the weather is bad, you can go to the hall of the state sports school. The ITF category 2 event, which traditionally features top-class players, offers the Austrian players a great opportunity to draw attention to themselves in front of their own audience.
Former Davis Cup greats such as Alexander Antonitsch, Gilbert Schaller, Stefan Koubek and Markus Hipfl appear in the Spring Bowl list of winners. Among the women, Petra Huber, Tamira Paszek and Barbara Haas triumphed. As the last Austrian to date, Jurij Rodionov won this important benchmark in junior tennis in 2017. Two years later, the 22-year-old from Lower Austria has established himself in the top 200 in the ATP world, is a fixture in the Daviscup team and, after winning the Challenger in Mauthausen, has been the best-ranked Austrian in the world rankings since Monday as 130th.
Melzer takes care of Schwärzler
Players from more than 25 countries will be at the start, with 10 of the top 100 ITF junior world rankings taking part. "The Spring Bowl is a springboard, but it also points the way where you stand," says organizer Raimund Stefanits. “When Sebastian Korda left three years ago, no one would have thought that three years later he would already be back
extended world class. Sebastian was in the final of the Next Gen last year and all the well-known experts are looking towards the top 10 soon.”
As for the girls, one can especially look forward to the appearances of Tamara Kostic. The 16-year-old Viennese is one of the greatest talents in the country, she is already in 121st place in the ITF ranking. "She is on an incredibly good path and has already reached semi-finals and even finals in tournaments of a similar size," says Stefanits. "I would be incredibly happy if another Austrian player could break through to international tennis by winning the Spring Bowl."
The appearance of Joel Schwärzler will also be interesting - ÖTV sports director Jürgen Melzer takes care of the 16-year-old from Vorarlberg in the southern part of the city and is impressed by his potential. From a Lower Austrian perspective, Leo Gutjahr, Patrick Jozwicki, Liel Rothensteiner, Alexandra Zimmer, Claudia Gasparovic and Chiara Semmelmeyer can enjoy the home advantage in St. Pölten, wildcards also went to Matthias Ujvary (B), Janis Graski (W) and Anna-Lena Ebster. The 42nd International Spring Bowl starts on Tuesday at 9 a.m. Admission is free.