Sunday, May 18, 2008

Tomorrow will be “Super Monday” in Pörtschach: all four Austrians – Melzer, Marach, Eitzinger and Eschauer – will compete

Tomorrow will be “Super Monday” in Pörtschach: all four Austrians – Melzer, Marach, Eitzinger and Eschauer – will compete

The second day of the 15th edition of the Hypo Group Tennis International, presented by bet-at-home.com, on the Werzer Arena in Pörtschach started with a delay. The whole morning heavy rain made playing tennis impossible. But at about 13.30 the weather gods showed mercy and an hour later the tournament day started with the third qualification round.

The first match on the centre court saw 19-year-old tennis talent Nico Reissig from Salzburg play against Slovak Blaz Kavcic, two years his elder. But the number 366 proved too big an obstacle for the Austrian No 1188 in the world and the result was a disappointing 2:6 and 0:6 defeat.

That doesn’t change the fact of the “Super Monday” from an Austrian point of view. For tomorrow, Monday, no less than four Austrians will take up their racket on the Werzer Tennis Facilities from 13.00 on.

The beginning will be made by Jürgen Melzer who will play talented US-American Donald Young. Following this, the second Austrian, Tyrolean Rainer Eitzinger, will face an almost unsurmountable obstacle: the No 1 of the tournament and No 4 in the world, Nikolay Davydenko (Rus). Oliver Marach from Graz will then be given an almost equally difficult task, having to play against 20-year-old Sam Querrey from the USA, No 38 in the ranking.

The final single match of the “Super Monday” on the centre court will see the No 3 of the Hypo Group Tennis International 08, cannonball-server Ivan Ljubicic from Croatia, playing versus a qualifier – a hurdle that shouldn’t prove too high. The fourth Austrian on this “Super Monday”, Werner Eschauer from Hollenstein, will meet an opponent of equal strength in Daniel Gimeno-Traver (Spa), which should offer him a fair chance to reach the second round.

Tomorrow, Monday, will also see the start of the free-ticket-special “Free Warm-Up for Semi-Finals and Final”. Each adult who buys a ticket for the semi-finals or the finals during the tournament week on Moday, Tuesday or Wednesday on the spot at the counter in Pörtschach will receive a free ticket for the respective day to watch the matches. Thus the tennis fan not only saves 25 Euro but also gets a “double feature” of exciting tennis action.

Should the two remaining matches scheduled for the centre court and the still open qualification matches be cancelled due to the currently heavy rain, it would be possible that the matches tomorrow will already start at 10.00. For more information please see the Order of Play which will be sent out this evening.

Article from http://www.atppoertschach.info/english/index.html