Fight went unrewarded

ÖTV youngster scrapes past the surprise

Although Joel Schwärzler from Vorarlberg missed out on reaching the semi-finals at the ATP Challenger in Tallahassee, the 18-year-old once again proved his class in an almost two-hour duel with 30-year-old American Mitchell Krueger. In the end, it didn't take much for the Harder to eliminate the world number 277.

Schwärzler started like a shot in Florida and took the service from Krueger in the very first game. A break that he immediately confirmed. Impressive: In his first three service games, the ÖTV contract player conceded just two points. In the seventh game, Schwärzler then had another chance to break for 5:2 - which he missed, but was still able to make it 5:3. 

Twelfth game a real thriller
After that, things did not go as hoped for the young player from Vorarlberg. First, Krueger broke his serve to make it 4:5, then managed to re-break to make it 5:5 and then put the score at 6:5. Joel managed just three points in these three games. 
The twelfth game then turned into a real thriller. Schwärzler started with a double fault, but then went 30:15 in front to fend off the first set point at 30:40. The junior world number one then had two chances to make it 6:6, which Krueger defused. Another double fault gave the US American his second set point, which again went unused. It was only on his third attempt that Krueger closed out the set and took the first set 7:5 after 56 minutes of play.

Schwärzler shows fighting spirit
In the second set, both cracks got through their first two service games rather unspectacularly and Krueger made it 3:2 with a "to-nil" game. In the sixth game, Schwärzler had four chances to level the score at 3:3, but he missed them all and so it came as it had to: Krueger used his second break point to take a 4:2 lead, which he immediately increased to 5:2. 
But Schwärzler did not give in that easily. He first broke his serve to make it 3:5, then managed to re-break to make it 4:5 and evened the score at 5:5 with a game to nil. After both players were then able to get their service through, set two had to be decided in a tie-break.

Jump in the world rankings
And Schwärzler was able to keep up until 4:3 from his point of view. But then the thread broke and Krueger won the tiebreak 7:4 and thus the match 7:5, 7:6 after a total playing time of 113 minutes. Although the player from Vorarlberg missed out on reaching an ATP Challenger semi-final for the first time, he was still able to celebrate a more than successful week. With his 15 ATP points gained, he will climb almost 150 places in the rankings and appear in the top 800 for the first time in 792nd place.