The first main competition days at the VARTA ÖTV youth championships in Innsbruck have been successfully completed. The big tournament favorites were only a few nakedness in all three age groups for boys and girls up to and including Thursday. With Alexander Gschiel (BTV/4) for the U16 boys, Chiara Semmelmeyer (NÖTV/3) for the U16 girls and Anna Mattle (OÖTV/3) for the U14 girls, who competed against the only twelve-year-old title co-favorite Anna Pircher ( TTV) failed, only three players from the top four of all seed lists did not reach the quarterfinals as planned. There the first seeded duels took place on Friday at the TK IEV MED-EL. The first number one got hit: Niklas Maislinger, the top seed in the U16 boys, was eliminated. The Burgenland surprisingly lost 2:6, 6:3, 2:6 against Timo Rosenkranz-König (STTV/7).
In his first interim assessment from Innsbruck, ÖTV sports director and Davis Cup captain Jürgen Melzer was extremely satisfied with the absolutely smooth course of the national youth title fights and what was offered in the age groups U12, U14 and U16. “Especially those matches where you could expect it were of a really high level. Among the girls there are one or two players who certainly stand out – with Anna Pircher (U14), who would even be eligible to play at U12 but has received a green card for a higher age group, and with Lilli Tagger (U16). It’s relatively balanced for the boys, I think many of them can play for the title. With the exception of the U12s.” There, Anton Kahlig is the clear tournament favorite – a role that the top seeded Burgenlander has fully lived up to with only one game loss in his first three matches to date.
Apart from Maislinger, who was eliminated in the quarter-finals, the top seeded players in the Tyrolean capital have generally not let much go by. Otherwise, only Lea Haider-Maurer (BTV) had to accept a surprising loss of a set: The daughter of the former national top players Mario and Kristin Haider-Maurer ultimately beat Julia Ehrenberger (WTV/7) in her quarterfinals in the girls U12 with 3:6 , 6:2, 6:1 through. On Saturday in Innsbruck all semi-final matches will be played individually. In all doubles competitions, however, all finalists have already been determined. The doubles finals were supposed to be played on Saturday, but in the morning the rain (which we were lucky enough to have been spared on Friday) initially thwarted the plans. Before 12:00 p.m. it is not possible to play at the TK IEV MED-EL.
Here are all the results from the VARTA ÖTV Youth Championships 2022.
