The nerves under control: Joel Schwärzler’s solid baptism of fire

The weather gods had insight and did not open his floodgates as feared on the third day of the 3rd SKE Danube Upper Austria Open in Mauthausen. The tennis challenger in the 100 category is fully on schedule and tournament director Florian Leitgeb, who will be organizing the 500 event in Munich on a large scale next year as co-license holder, is quite satisfied with the Austrians’ performances so far.

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Of the twelve who started, four made it to the round of 16: Filip Misolic, Lukas Neumayer, Gerald Melzer and the highly talented Joel Schwärzler (Union Stein&Co Mauthausen), who mastered his baptism of fire on the ATP tour in front of a home audience with flying colors. “I like the facility, I feel really comfortable here and believe in myself,” said the number one in the junior ranking. The 18-year-old showed no nerves, served six aces and defeated the German Mats Rosenkranz 7:6 (1), 6:4 after 1:33 hours.

“I stayed calm in the important moments and maintained my level,” reported Schwärzler, who – in addition to prize money of at least 1,960 US dollars – has seven world ranking points in his pocket and is in his debut season on the professional stage can slowly but surely move towards the top 500.

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