A 13-year-old Tyrolean girl made a remarkable achievement in local tennis this weekend.
Anna Pircher wins the first international U18 title of her career at the ITF J30 clay court tournament in Vienna’s Colony.
The second-ranked Tyrolean (ITF 645) won the final game of the top seeds against the South Korean Ha Eum Lee (ITF 551) 6:4, 6:4.
This means she will improve in the youth world rankings on Monday by almost 100 positions to a place of around 550.
For the boys, however, the hoped-for home win in the singles did not work out: Burgenland’s Alexander Gschiel (ITF 567), who was leading by two, was also unable to stop the top-ranked South African John Bothma (ITF 440) and lost in the final 5:7, 5:7.
“Anna delivered her strongest performance in the final”
Pircher clinched her first title in just her seventh start on the ITF Junior Tour. Last year she had already reached her first ITF J60 semi-final in Maribor, and in the 14th district of Vienna she has now taken the final steps towards a remarkable debut success.
Hannes König’s protégé remained without losing a set in all six individual games, did not give up more than four games in any of the twelve sets and achieved a strong overall game balance of 72:26. She received well-deserved praise from her coach and manager: “She played very consistently, solved her tasks as they came – and the conditions were difficult this week, with damp ground and cold temperatures,” said König.
“Especially in the quarter-finals, her opponent made it quite difficult for her. Her opponent in the final also played a great tournament up to that point. But Anna put in her strongest performance in the final and played a really strong match.”
In the second set, Pircher also turned around a 2:4 and 0:40 deficit, “from then on she played really well again.” And so it worked out with Pircher’s historic moment of glory – which deserves this name, as such a coup by a young red-white-red talent is an absolute rarity.
Youngest Austrian ITF tournament winner since Haas 2010
Only a handful of Austrian girls have achieved comparable success at ITF youth tournaments at such a young age in the last two decades, for example in chronological order Tamira Paszek, Melanie Klaffner, Nikola Hofmanova as well as Barbara Haas, Julia Grabher and Anna-Maria Heil.
In December 2003, around her 13th birthday, Paszek recorded her first semi-final and final at the second and third ITF tournaments in a row in Kenya. Although the Vorarlberg native only triumphed at this level for the first time in April 2005, her first WTA title followed in September 2006 in Portoroz.
Austria’s tennis hopes rest on these women
Klaffner had reached her first final in the same month as Paszek at the age of 13 years and seven months in Heiveld (Belgium) at her third ITF tournament start, but the Upper Austrian only won her first title in March 2005, when she was 14 years and almost ten months. Hofmanova also recorded her first ITF tournament victory in March 2005 at the age of 14 years and a half months in Sidi Fredj (Algeria).
In January 2010, Haas won her first ITF victory trophy at the home event in Salzburg-Bergheim at the age of 13 years and just under ten months – and was therefore around a month and a half younger than Pircher, who celebrated her 14th birthday on May 4th. In her second appearance at the ITF tournament, Grabher made it into the first final in Nairobi (Kenya) in February 2010 at the age of 13 years and seven and a half months – it took another two and a half years to win her first title. In April 2010, Heil finally won in Marsa (Malta) at the age of 14 years and nine and a half months.
Coach König was already expecting the title
Regardless of the rarity of such early successes, Pircher’s coup in Vienna came as no surprise to König. Especially since his protégé, also placed on two, was one of the tournament favorites. “Honestly – and I don’t want this to sound arrogant: I went there with her and said, ‘We’ll win the tournament!'” was the confident attitude. What made King so sure?
“Anna is prepared for something like that. I’ve been training with her since she was four and a half years old. She’s also been under contract with me and my partner Wolfgang Mangold for two years. The positive thing about her is that she’s been incredibly tough in matches since she was a child She almost always gets to the point. She started playing in the women’s Bundesliga three years ago and has only lost one match during that time. She learned early on to make the most of her opportunities.
The secret to this is hard work: “Anna also does a lot in the area of athletics. Of course, compared to her opponent in the final, who is a good two years older and very good athletically, you can see that she is physically more of a woman and has more reserves. But Anna has been compensating for this incredibly well for years because she anticipates incredibly well, works well on defense, and implements it well, not only playing in and countering well, but also being a complete player herself A lot of emphasis was placed on ensuring that she had all the variations in her strokes – be it a slice, a stop or a serve.”
King and eight-person team behind success
Behind Pircher’s promising, young career there is now, alongside König, an eight-person, highly professional team – with his business partner Mangold, who also works in management, the athletic trainers Georg Hamerle and Christopher Schröck (the coach of Norway’s ski star Aleksander Aamodt Kilde), and physiotherapist Gernot Landerer, mental coach Armin Reindl, the yoga trainer Karoline Geiger and the two sparring partners and assistant trainers Daniel Zimmermann and Christian Köhle.
Pircher sees herself also prepared for upcoming appearances at higher-quality ITF youth tournaments than in Vienna: “She improves with her opponent. I’m not afraid of anyone,” König made clear. However, the large team is reflected in the required investment sum in the six-figure range per year. Costs that are primarily borne by König, Mangold and friends. “There’s risk capital and a bit of work behind it. But Anna justifies the effort.”
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2024-04-21 11:08:32
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