The championships were played on 10 December 2011, starting at 1:00 p.m. and ending around 5:30 p.m. Compared to previous years, this time the players were not seeded according to their playing strength, and the tournament management also dispensed with dividing them into age groups.
Head of department Wilhelm A. Kolb welcomed the players. Afterwards, the guests of honour Horst Lackner – chairman of the TuS – and Kurt Vallée, third mayor of the town of Pfarrkirchen, also addressed a few words to the participants and wished them every success.
The lively participation of the youngsters, who had been given clearance to play with the seniors, was very pleasing, and they were all at the table with great commitment and also with success. Less pleasing, unfortunately, was Albert Gschwandtner’s injury shortly before the start of the games, which meant he had to sit out this year.
The draw took place at 12:45 p.m. and, as feared by many players, the singles produced a so-called “group of death” with Manfred Schille, Marius Jarzombski, Rudi Sussmann and old hand Helmut Köstler. As 16 players were at the start, play took place in 4 groups of 4 players each, with the top two from each reaching the next round. The doubles combinations were drawn by lot, so that here really all players had a good chance of being at the front.
The tournament began with the 8 doubles – knockout system – and the following qualified for the semi-finals: Manfred Schille/Christian Jagdhuber, Reinhard Kroll/Alexander Deuerling – 1st semi-final –, as well as Marius Jarzombski/Matthias Kolb and Elena Sussmann/Armin Siebengartner – 2nd semi-final.
Both semi-finals were very exciting, and the first in particular became almost “dramatic” when Kroll/Deuerling, trailing 0:2 in sets, could not convert 2 match points in the fifth set, so that Manfred Schille and Christian Jagdhuber advanced to the final after winning the 5th set 13:11. For Alex in particular it would have been a great success to be right at the front as a youngster – a shame, but for Christian too it is surely one of his biggest successes in recent years.
The 2nd semi-final was also close; here Elena and Armin prevailed 3:2, likewise a strong match! Alongside the seasoned Marius Jarzombski, Matthias Kolb played excellently and hinted that he will also have to be reckoned with in the adult ranks in the future.
Manfred Schille and Christian Jagdhuber won the final 3:1, but Elena and Armin put up strong resistance – congratulations to the four of them. Third place went to Marius and Matthias with a 3:2 win against Reinhard and Alexander, who had already led 2:0 in sets!
In the 4 groups of the singles round the following advanced:
Group A: Christian Jagdhuber and Matthias Kolb, Group B: Elena Sussmann and Reinhard Kroll, Group C: Manfred Schille and Marius Jarzombski, Group D: Peter Wolfrum and Armin Siebengartner
As mentioned at the start, Group C was the strongest, so that unfortunately co-favourite Rudi Sussmann as third – and Helmut Köstler – had to drop out here already.
The quarter-finals produced the following results: Reinhard Kroll against Christian Jagdhuber – 3:0 –, Elena Sussmann against Matthias Kolb 3:2 – a close match –, Manfred Schille against Armin Siebengartner 3:1 – a very good performance by Armin in this match –, and finally Marius Jarzombski against Peter Wolfrum 3:2 in sets.
The 4th quarter-final in particular, between the co-favourites Marius and Peter, was extremely exciting and close; Marius managed to prevail luckily in the 5th set 12:10.
Marius won the 1st semi-final against Elena relatively clearly 3:0, whereas the 2nd semi-final between tournament favourite Manfred and Reinhard was close: Reinhard, with a surprising 2:1 lead in sets and 7:5 in points, could not close out the 4th set, Manfred came back into the match and then won the deciding set 11:8.
In the final, somewhat surprisingly for many, Marius prevailed 3:1 against Manfred; it was a class match, which Marius ultimately won deservedly with his strong attacking shots.
The match between Elena and Reinhard for third place unfortunately had to be given up by Elena as early as the first set – a shame.
So the winner was Marius ahead of Manni, Reinhard and Elena.
In conclusion, it can be said that this newly chosen format held many surprises in store and – as already mentioned – opened up chances for many more players than usual. In one or two years the aforementioned youngsters and Johannes Apfel, who also presented himself well, as well as Simon Wasmeier, who was not there, will have gained even more routine and experience, so that they could well break into the phalanx of the “usual suspects” – it would be desirable.
Finally, thanks are due to the tournament management around Gregor Jarzombski – and Erwin Wimmer – who stepped in at short notice because of Gerhard Erl’s illness; the tournament was carried out without any problems. Thanks also to the other “helpers”, namely Wigbert Bichlmaier and Manfred Schille, who took care of food and drinks and several other organisational matters. Heartfelt thanks also to the donors/sponsors of the tournament!
After the interruption of the championships last year, this was a successful new start.
The awards ceremony will take place on the occasion of the Christmas party on 17 December 2011 at the “Kirchenwirt”.
Reinhard Kroll
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