On October 24, 2022, on the sidelines of the Erste Bank Open, it was announced that Joel Schwärzler for the boys and Anna Pircher for the girls had been named VARTA young player of the year 2022 by all ÖTV and state association coaches. While the U16 European champion from Vorarlberg had already received his award during the ATP 500 tournament in the Wiener Stadthalle, the young Tyrolean was still to be honored. This has now also been given an extremely worthy setting: at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz, Austria’s currently only WTA tournament. In front of a very large stage and well-filled spectator stands on the center court, the twelve-year-old young hopeful received her award from the hands of two deserving ex-professionals, from ÖTV sports coordinator and Billie Jean King Cup captain Marion Maruska and the Linz tournament ambassador Barbara Schett-Eagle, also in the presence of Petra Russegger (also ex-professional as well as role model and mentor for trainers).
“She deserved it because she was very successful in her age group – and even in the age group above that,” said Maruska about Pircher. In June 2022, she secured the double at a Category 1 Tennis Europe U12 tournament in Trieste (Italy). And then, in the further course of the year, even clear an age group higher – nationally and internationally. At the VARTA ÖTV youth championships in Innsbruck, she triumphed at the age of twelve in the girls’ singles U14 and girls’ doubles U12 competitions. In October, Pircher stormed to victory at a Tennis Europe Category 3 event in Kreuzlingen (Switzerland) in the under-14s and her appearances in the Tennis Europe Summer Cups U12 for Austria’s national girls team were more than worth seeing permit. Maruska Pircher is therefore promising a rosy tennis future for good reason: “She is a very complete player. She can already do a lot – drop shots, she also completes very well for her twelve years. This is also the reason why it is so successful. It is of course a hope for the future.”
Also Honored Referee and Coach of the Year
In addition to the award for Pircher, a referee and a trainer award were also given for 2022. In the case of the referees, this went to Sylvia Küffer, who – starting in 2019 with a regional association referee course in Lower Austria – pursued her career as an referee with great commitment and, after successfully completing her training as ÖTV Chair Umpire 2022, her first international chair referee assignments at ITF in the same year -Professional events experienced. At the ATP tournament in Kitzbühel, she had already been able to act as a linesman in 2020. And Roumiana “Roumi” Katzarova-Ivanova, who can proudly look back on more than 30 years of experience as a trainer in Bulgaria and Austria, was honored as Trainer of the Year 2022. The former Bulgarian U18 youth champion is a sports and English teacher at the Schruns secondary school in Vorarlberg and has been a committed women’s officer in the Vorarlberg Tennis Association since 2010. She also acts as a supervisor for assignments to VTV kids’ tennis events and as a referee at the Tennis Europe tournament in Bludenz. No distance seems too far for her training: She attended trainer workshops of the ITF and Tennis Europe in Barcelona, Casablanca, Wimbledon and Valencia.
