French Open

Joel Schwärzler triumphs in junior doubles

Joel Schwärzler(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Joel Schwärzler made up for his singles title in the junior doubles at the French Open on Saturday. The 18-year-old from Vorarlberg and Norway's Nicolai Budkov Kjaer came out on top in the final against the number two seeded pairing of Federico Cina/Rei Sakamoto (ITA/JPN) 6:4, 7:6(3). Victory was secured after just 1:10 hours. In the singles, Schwärzler was defeated in the semi-finals by eventual champion Kaylan Bigun (USA).

"I'm really happy, but nevertheless the focus was on the singles," Schwärzler summed up, not fully satisfied with missing out on the singles title. But winning a Grand Slam in doubles is of course something nice. "We played better than them in the important moments." That was the case in the second set, for example, where a 0:5 and 30:40 deficit was turned around. Schwärzler's coach Jürgen Melzer was also pleased to note this. "It's a nice success. You don't win the Grand Slam every day, it's really cool," said the Lower Austrian before leaving France.

It was definitely the last appearance on the junior stage for the top Austrian talent. "I won't be playing any more junior tournaments, that was the last one," the left-hander said plainly. Schwärzler's doubles tournament victory was the third Austrian triumph at Roland Garros in the current competitions, after Maximilian Taucher had won both the singles and doubles title in the wheelchair juniors on Friday.