Tournament in Tulln

Neumayer misses out on his first Challenger title

Lukas Neumayer was unable to win his first Challenger title in Tulln.

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Lukas Neumayer missed out on his first Challenger title on Sunday. At the ATP 100 Challenger in Tulln, the 22-year-old from Salzburg was beaten 4:6, 1:6 by Jan Choinski from Great Britain after just 70 minutes, losing his third final at this level. However, Neumayer has won 50 ATP points and prize money of 9,705 euros with his best result so far this year.

Neumayer, who has also been nominated for next week's Davis Cup against Turkey in Bad Waltersdorf, will move up from 320th to 262nd in the rankings. In any case, he proved in the garden city 40 km west of Vienna that he is a force to be reckoned with in the future.

"I think it was an open match in the first set," said the man from Salzburg, but also found critical words for himself. "I played far too passively at times and was often on the run and couldn't get out of it." He also made slight forehand errors on important points in the first set. In the second set, he was already ahead in the second game, but then made slight forehand errors again. "Then he breaks ahead and plays really well with confidence," he said of the German-born player, who changed citizenship some time ago because of his British mother.

In the "stable duel" with Choinski, who like Neumayer has also been training with Günter Bresnik recently, Neumayer was only able to keep the match open in the first set. It began with a scary moment when Neumayer hit a lineswoman in the face with his racket while defending and she had to be treated for a bloody nose. "That wasn't easy either, because I was mentally unsettled," admitted Neumayer, who immediately helped with the initial treatment.

"Extremely important week"
He showed fighting spirit in tough baseline duels and made up a 2:4 deficit. However, at 4:5, 30 both he committed a double fault and Choinski took his first chance to take the set after 40 minutes with aplomb. After that, Neumayer seemed to have shot his powder. He quickly fell behind 0:3. But at 0:5, the Austrian at least managed to get the game of honor.

Choinski, who had eliminated the top seed Vit Kopriva in the first round, was delighted with his third Challenger title. But Neumayer can also leave with his head held high. "It was a really good week, unfortunately not the perfect week," said Neumayer. A week that was "certainly extremely important" for his career. "If someone had told me before the tournament that I would be playing in the final, I would certainly have taken it. It's an important step for me to get back into the Grand Slam qualifiers. That's the goal now."

In addition to the Davis Cup, he will then remain in Bad Waltersdorf, where the next Challenger awaits him. "Then I might play a few futures." First of all, he will continue his journey towards the Davis Cup on Monday.