Mannheim. After the match point, Bernabé Zapata Miralles threw his racket into the crowd, relieved at his narrow victory and full of euphoria at the runner-up position. The Spaniard had just pulled his head out of the noose after falling behind in the match tie-break and secured the fourth individual victory for Grün-Weiss Mannheim in front of 2,500 spectators. In the end, the Bundesliga tennis team scored an unchallenged 5-1 home win against Gladbacher HTC and thus relegated them to second place.
AdUnit Mobile_Pos2
AdUnit Content_1
“That was an outstanding end of the season for us. Before the season started, you couldn’t have expected that we would be runners-up. With the fourth vice championship, it is a year that goes down in the annals of Grün-Weiss. That’s something special,” enthused Mannheim’s team manager Gerald Marzenell after the strong end of the season with two clear wins and a draw, which catapulted Mannheim from sixth to second place within a week.
Newsletter “Good morning Mannheim!” – Register for free
Pedro Martinez once again provided the initial spark in Mannheim. The Spaniard defeated Tim Sandkaulen on the packed center court and only had problems finding his way into the game at the beginning. Spurred on by the 1:3 deficit, Martinez secured the following eleven games before winning 6:3 and 6:0. For the 26-year-old, it was the tenth win in a row across the season – an extraordinary achievement in the Bundesliga, which is so balanced and peppered with top players.
“I didn’t lose a single one of the individuals this year. Won seven out of seven, which isn’t that easy,” said Martinez, beaming and proud of his ongoing winning streak. The right-hander conceded his last defeat with the sensitive stops on the first day of last season against Filip Krajinovic from BASF TC Ludwigshafen.
An impressive series, for which Martinez even refrained from preparing for the upcoming US Open qualifier on hard court next week. “I didn’t want to travel for so long and would rather play for Mannheim, which I like very much,” said the crowd favorite, who rightly received extra applause.
At the same time, Mannheim’s Andrea Pellegrini easily beat 17-year-old Max Stenzer. Max Rehberg also solved his mandatory task against 18-year-old Finn Hopfe and then started thinking about the next few years. “I’m really happy to play here and at some point I want to win the title,” said the 19-year-old after finishing runners-up this year.
Zapata Miralles secures victory
Zapata Miralles made it the most exciting against Gladbach, who played without their top players. The Spaniard gave up the first set with an all-or-nothing play against Aleksandr Nedovyesov. Screams of his dissatisfaction echoed throughout the facility. Only in the second set did the 26-year-old play with less risk. “Bernabé was calmer then, played longer rallies and only then took the shot,” Marzenell praised his protégé for the more measured approach.
The reward was not only the victory for the 64th in the world rankings, but also the early success for green and white. After seventh place in the 2022 season, which was dubbed a transitional year, Mannheim (10:6 points) now followed in second place behind champions TC Bredeney (12:4).
2023-08-13 17:42:00
#Green #white #stormed #vice #championship
