After the two opening victories in the 2nd Tennis Bundesliga North, the anticipation at HTC Blau-Weiss Krefeld for the home premiere was huge. Numerous spectators didn’t want to miss the first performance on Hüttenallee either. The total of 450 visitors – a decent setting for a Friday afternoon during the holiday season – were rewarded with high-class tennis, at the end of which the strong guests from LTTC Rot-Weiss Berlin triumphed. With a 4:2 lead after the singles, they created an excellent starting position in front of the final doubles and finally prevailed narrowly with 5:4.
In the fight for the targeted return to the 1st Bundesliga, the loss of the clean record is certainly a dampener, but by no means a broken leg. However, the blue and whites cannot afford a second defeat on Sunday (11 a.m.) in the second home game this weekend when the Maku Tennis Club Ohligs is a guest. Especially since TK BW Aachen celebrated their fourth win of the season against THC Cologne.
Team boss Hajo Ploenes didn’t suspect anything good in the early phase of the first individual round, because Stefano Travaglia found it just as difficult to get into the match against the strong German Timo Stodder as Gero Kretschmer against Nino Ehrenschneider. Only Gian Marco Moroni, who made his HTC debut yesterday, seemed to have his opponent Dmitriy Popko under control. But after winning the first set, the tide turned in favor of the Kazakh, who finally prevailed in the champions tie-break. Kretschmer improved in the second set and saved himself against the left-hander after a 5:3 lead with his own serve in the Champions tie-break, but was just as narrowly defeated as Moroni. Eyes now turned to Travaglia, who showed great fighting spirit in the baseline duel after being 4-1 down, equalized to make it 5-5 and also won the tie-break of the first set. But Stodder still had a lot to counter and secured the second set 6:2. So it was the third time in the champions tie-break, which Travaglia won with loud support and his second match point 12:10 and thus kept the hope of overall victory alive.
In the top individual, Frederico Gaio put in a concentrated performance against the Spaniard Alvaro Lopez San Martin and won in two straight sets. On the other hand, the second debutant, Carlos Sanchez Jover, lost the all-Spanish duel against Oriol Roca-Batalla just as smoothly on his 23rd birthday. For the fourth time that day, Tom Schönenberg and the Spaniard Eduard Esteve Lobato decided in the Champions tie-break after Schönenberg clearly won the first set. But for the third time a Berliner prevailed.
With the burden of having to win all three doubles, the final round turned into a thriller. After two wins, the duo of Schönenberg and Kretschmer had to admit defeat for the first time, which meant victory for Berlin. More was possible for HTC press spokesman Joerg cells: “You can see that everyone is on an equal footing. But today there was more. The fact that we lost was unnecessary and annoying.” Against Ohligs it is conceivable that Enrico Dalla Valle will be available again.
2023-07-21 18:21:00
#HTC #BlauWeiss #Krefeld #lost #RotWeiss #Berlin
