OBERHACHING, October 24, 2015
The final four of the first edition of the US-$ 10,000 ITF Future Daikin Open were in action at the Tennis Base Oberhaching on Saturday.
The only remaining seeded player in the draw, second favourite Edoardo Eremin from Italy was forced to retire due to shoulder injury in the opening semi-finals match against German Robin Kern in the third game after only six minutes of play. The 22-year-old from Nuremberg advanced to his first final since lifting the trophy at the ITF Future event in Ashkelon in May 2014.
Edoardo Eremin was forced to retire, playing only three games with Robin Kern (left)
Kern will meet fellow countryman Jeremy Jahn, who beat Laimen Champion Mats Moraing 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the pair’s first tour meeting. The world number 583 won 73% of his first service points and capitalized on four of his 13 break point chances to seal victory in one hour and 47 minutes. On Sunday’s final, Jahn and Kern will clash for the first time.
Jeremy Jahn aims on winning his second title of the season
Third seeded Dutch pair Niels Lootsma and David Pel captured the doubles title, winning the final 2-6, 6-4, 10-8 against German tandem of Johannes Haerteis and Hannes Wagner.
In the course of the Daikin Open, a high-calibre podium group discussed about the future of German tennis on Wednesday. The president of the Bavarian Tennis Federation Helmut Schmidbauer, the president of the Swiss Tennis Federation Rene Stammbach, the vice-president of the German Tennis Federation Dirk Hordorff as well as German tennis professional and former world number 18 Florian Mayer participated the event.
Dirk Hordorff clarified that the German Tennis Federation (DTB) is currently not at the point, where it should actually belong to as the world’s biggest tennis federation. With Philipp Kohlschreiber, Alexander Zverev and Benjamin Becker only three German players can be found within the top 100.
Tennis Discussion in Oberhaching (photo: BTV)
“We need to improve in a few areas. The co-operation between the DTB, other federations and the clubs need to be more efficient. In this case the DTB has to be the leader but there is a lack of money,” Hordorff explained and added that with Davis Cup captain Michael Kohlmann only one coach is fully financed by the federation.
Rene Stammbach was visibly surprised by this fact. “This is shocking news to me,” he said. Swiss tennis with currently two top 5-players in the ATP rankings, receives financial support and the co-operation between the competing tennis academies in the country is pretty close. “But maybe in four or five years, we will have a similar discussion, as there is no potential successor in sight for our top players Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka.”
In Germany, the role of the ITF Future events seems to be put more in the focus now. “There is a correlation between the amount of ITF Pro Circuit tournaments taking place and the top 100 players from a country,” Schmidbauer pointed out. With the Daikin Open and next week’s ITF combined event in Ismaning, two new events made it into the tennis calendar. This is one step into the right direction, a fact confirmed by Florian Mayer, who is currently sidelined from the courts due to injury. “You cannot buy success in sports. I always felt great here at the Tennis Base in Oberhaching. Having qualified coaches and competitive players for practice sessions is the most important thing.”
A video of the discussion can be found here: Discussion Oberhaching “Future of German Tennis”
