Only the number one in the tournament, serial winner Filip Cristian Jianu, can stop the ÖTV contract player.
After four mostly impressively clear victories and a great week of tournaments, it was all over: Joel Schwärzler lost his first international men’s final at the ITF M15 clay court tournament in Antalya. The only 18-year-old from Vorarlberg (ATP 1061), who only got into the main competition via a junior reserved place, had to defeat the top-ranked Romanian Filip Cristian Jianu (ATP 311) on Sunday morning after 76 minutes of play with 1:6, 2:6 give up. Nevertheless, the great local hope for the future will move well into the top 1000 in the world rankings for the first time on April 1st with the eight ATP points gained; the youngster is currently ranked 938th in the live rankings. The premiere title would have brought the protégé of ÖTV sports director and Davis Cup captain Jürgen Melzer, who personally looked after him in Turkey this time, around 100 places further up with another seven ATP points.
In the final this time things didn’t go to Schwärzler’s liking, at the latest from the first loss of serve to 1:3. He missed his only break opportunity in the match at 2:3 in the second set – a preliminary decision to the detriment of the youth world number one. Nevertheless, he was rightly able to draw a positive conclusion about this week: “I’m super happy that I reached the final. “Also with how I played up to that point and that I really played through the matches at a level, which is extremely important and was a goal of me and Jürgen (Melzer; note),” the Harder explained to ÖTV. “Unfortunately I had a bad day today. But you also have to say that Jianu played really well and exactly in the right way and made few mistakes,” he said, acknowledging the extremely strong opposition performance. “I had a small chance in the second set when I could have gotten the rebreak, but I didn’t take advantage of it, otherwise it could perhaps have been a turning point again. But then he continued to play like before and closed things off solidly.” Jianu’s self-confidence from now proud 15 victories in a row certainly helped.
Schwärzler wants more: “A good week is of course not enough”
Schwärzler could have become the first 18-year-old Austrian to win an international men’s tournament in Antalya since none other than Dominic Thiem in May 2012 and as the youngest Austrian since Alexander Peya in July 1998. But for him, postponement is not over: “That is of course my goal, to win tournaments like this on a regular basis. It’s not that much that’s missing per se, just the consistency that I showed this week. But of course a good week is not enough, it has to be my clear goal to do that every week.” Since his first and so far only men’s semi-final a year and a week ago, also in Antalya, in his opinion ” has already gone a long way. For some things more, for some things less. I just have to become more consistent, that’s what it’s all about. In general, a lot has progressed and I also feel better on the pitch.”
The fact that he had only defeated world number 503 in Antalya and then celebrated his second success against an ATP top 500 player gave him a further boost: “I already knew that I had the level to beat such players hit, but so far only every now and then, when I’m having a good day. Beating people like that twice in a row is good and definitely gives me self-confidence.” This should also help him in his next appearances, which will take place at a higher level: He is in the three ATP 75 challengers in the USA Sarasota, Tallahassee and Savannah on green sand each have junior accelerator spots directly in the main competition. A great opportunity for Schwärzler to collect a lot of points and experience. But the competition he faces overseas will of course be even stronger than in Turkey.
Melzer sees a positive week: “You can build on that”
Melzer also drew a positive conclusion on site: “The whole week was positive, I have to say. If you ignore the final, the remaining matches were all really good. Above all, he didn’t let himself be guilty of anything here match after match, played really consistently and at a level where he won his matches as smoothly as he just won them, and I was very happy with that. There is usually one bad match a week. It’s obviously bitter that it’s in the final, and it’s also logical that it’s difficult to win there. But overall you can build on it, on the first final, and I hope it continues like this.” In the final, the ex-world-class player also saw a strong performance from Jianu: “I wouldn’t say that he had a run, but that he did was solid – the way he plays: he makes few mistakes, doesn’t do much nonsense, plays really consistently. Joel simply didn’t find the means to defend himself today, and that’s why the result went so smoothly.” The good thing about it: “You can see what you need to work on, and we’ll do that in the next few Of course you can do it for weeks too.”
2024-03-24 15:29:23
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