The ÖTV contract player celebrates the greatest Austrian youth successes back-to-back since Dominic Thiem in 2011.
2015 Andrey Rublev (current ATP rank 5), 2016 Seongchan Hong (ATP 197), 2017 Emil Ruusuvuori (ATP 61), 2018 Brandon Nakashima (ATP 134), 2019 Holger Rune (ATP 6) – and 2023 Joel Schwärzler: Austria’s currently The greatest tennis talent sensationally entered the sometimes very prominent list of winners of the 2023 ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals in Chengdu this Sunday. The third-ranked Vorarlberg player (ITF 7) prevailed in the final 6:3, 7:6 (6), in a left-handed duel with the top-seeded Mexican Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez (ITF 2) – of all people, his roommate in the Chinese metropolis these days Capital of Sichuan Province.
Just last week, Schwärzler achieved the greatest Austrian youth success since Dominic Thiem’s coup at the Orange Bowl in Plantation in 2011 with his triumph at the Osaka Mayor’s Cup (ITF J500). The 17-year-old managed to top this already impressive milestone in his young career just a week later. With this title, the Harder not only secured a travel allowance of 17,000 US dollars, but also 750 points for the youth world rankings. On Monday he will take third place, the best ranking of an Austrian since Thiem, who once made it to second place on January 3, 2011.
Schwärzler “incredibly happy and proud of myself and my team”
Schwärzler had lost – as in the semi-final against the Bulgarian Iliyan Radulov (ITF 8) – his only duel so far with Pacheco Mendez. Now he got his revenge in what was probably the most important match of his tennis career so far. After chances on both sides, he got the break that decided the first set at 3:2. There were no breaks in the second round, with Schwärzler pulling his head out of the loop at 4:5 and 0:30 in his service – the tiebreak had to decide. There the red-white-red young star fell behind 1:4 and 4:6, but kept his nerve again: He fended off both set points, won a total of four points in a row and was able to celebrate after a service winner on the first match point – in the direction of ÖTV sports director and Davis Cup captain Jürgen Melzer, who personally looked after him during the two weeks of the tournament in Asia.
“It was the first time this week that I played against a left-hander. It was difficult to return, but in the end I made it in the tiebreak – and played a few good points in the important moments,” said Schwärzler in an interview on the court. “I’m just happy that I won it.” Opposite The local youngster made it clear to ÖTV what this coup meant to him: “Incredibly much! It is the biggest tournament after the youth Grand Slams. When I think about the people who have already won here – and now my name can be next to it, it’s an incredible feeling. “I am incredibly happy and proud of myself and my team and, above all, very grateful to Jürgen, who is always by my side – even if I often make things difficult for him,” smiled the hard man. “I’m not only super happy that I was able to win, but also that the reward for all the hard work has come.”
Melzer: “Exactly the tennis I want from a protégé”
What Schwärzler decided on this big day was “that I served well and was simply better from the baseline. I returned very badly for this. If I had succeeded a little better, the second set probably wouldn’t have been so close.” Melzer was correct in his analysis, but overall he saw “a really good performance from Joel. I’m very happy about it, especially about his performance in my head. He pulled it off really well today. We came up with a very clear game plan beforehand where we thought he would beat Pacheco Mendez. And that’s what happened. He won it because he kept going to the net, taking his opponent’s edge and playing aggressively. It was exactly the kind of tennis I want from a protégé. To be able to do that in the final of such an important tournament is really good.”
Purely from the match-up, Melzer had a better feeling before the final game than before the semifinal against Radulov. “Against Pacheco Mendez it was a game where I thought to myself: If he plays well, he has it under control. Of course it helped the way he served today. Except for one game where he hit three backhands somewhere, he wasn’t very vulnerable in his service. So the question was: How many returns can he make? Not enough in the second set, so it went to a tiebreak. And even though he was down 4-1 and 6-4 there, we both had the feeling – I talked to him about it after the match – that we would see him ahead, even if it would have ended in third place. He was simply the better one today, even with more options in his game,” said Melzer, who has been working with Schwärzler at the ÖTV Südstadt performance center for over two years.
Now comes the attack on the world number 1
With his sensational successes in the last few weeks and his likeable demeanor, Schwärzler has not only increased his fan base in Asia, to whom he gave a number of autographs, but also gathered the fans at home: his home club, TC Hard, judged the big one Finally, we organized a public viewing and followed this historic triumph together. What could possibly follow soon would also be historic: “Joel now has the opportunity to end the year as number one. That would of course be a nice goal. We first have to sit down and think about whether he wants to go for number one this year or not. He would probably have to be in Mérida for that (Mexico; note) and at the Orange Bowl in Florida (both ITF J500 tournaments; note) play,” said Melzer. So far, Thiem’s second place remains the best ITF ranking for an Austrian of all time.
The chance of the top position is actually great: The current world ranking leader and US Open junior winner Joao Fonseca (Brazil) is not currently playing any youth events, Pacheco Mendez still has a lot of points to defend at the end of the season. Both are now just ahead of Schwärzler. Regardless of whether he could soon be number one, Melzer was “really proud of Joel and what he has achieved over the last two weeks. The clear goal of the Asia trip was to reach the top ten and he worked really well at it. The things that were often in mind in the past, that he was too negative: Not everything was perfect, but he took a step forward.” Schwärzler also wants to take the last step forward in the ranking : “The goal now is of course number one. That would be incredible for me and also for ÖTV, I have to be honest, and for the tennis country of Austria. And also for other players to see that it’s possible.” When asked that no Austrian had actually achieved this to date, Schwärzler just smiled: “Then it’s time…”
Here are some impressions from the award ceremony of the 2023 ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals in Chengdu:
” class=”thumbnail pull-left”> ” class=”thumbnail pull-left”> Joel Schwärzler (right) with girls winner Alina Korneeva (left).
© SCT
” class=”thumbnail pull-left”> ” class=”thumbnail pull-left”> Jürgen Melzer (left) played a significant role in Joel Schwärzler’s coup (right).
© SCT
2023-10-22 09:08:19
#Schwärzler #triumphed #ITF #Junior #Finals
