At the season finale of the Tennis Bundesliga, TC Großhesselohe no longer catches up with the new champion Düsseldorf and becomes German runner-up.
Großhesselohe
- in 1986 and 1987 this was already successful - and now, 35 years later, for the third time: TC Großhesselohe is German vice champion in tennis.
The Bundesliga team from the Isar Valley ended the season with two wins, a 4-2 win at home in front of 750 spectators against TK Kurhaus Lambertz Aachen and a clear 6-0 away win at the champions of the past three seasons, the tennis club Grün-Weiß Mannheim.
Despite the two wins, it wasn't enough to catch up the two points behind Rochusclub Düsseldorf and North Rhine-Westphalia: Düsseldorf also won both games (4:2 against Mannheim and in Ludwigshafen) and thus secured the for the first time in the club's history championship title.
"First of all, congratulations to Düsseldorf on winning your first title after a long association," said TCG Bundesliga sports director Bernard Eßmann.
"After initial disappointments in the first games of the season, we didn't make the really big hit.
But we are happy that we were able to improve again in the third year after promotion.”
Theoretical title chance preserved with home win against Aachen
With the 4:2 in the hard-fought home win against Aachen, Großhesselohe kept his theoretical chance for the title.
The TCG presented three top German players to the 750 spectators at the club's facility on Pullacher Straße.
In the individual round, Jan-Lennard Struff (ATP world ranking position 124) put the TCG in the lead.
The German Davis Cup player won the singles in second place on the Leo Benz center court against the 21-year-old Austrian Filip Misolic (ATP 136) 6:0, 6:3.
In first place, TCG local hero Peter Gojowczyk (ATP 115) had a hard time in his first Bundesliga season against the very defensive Vit Kopriva (ATP 152) and narrowly lost to the 25-year-old Czech 6: 7 (3), 5: 7.
In the second individual round, Philipp Kohlschreiber (ATP 260) added the second match point with another quick win.
The eight-time ATP Champion defeated Martin Cuevas (ATP 416) in third place @6-0, 6-2 in just 44 minutes.
In fourth place, Kacper Zuk (ATP 266) struggled against the Italian veteran Matteo Viola (ATP 545) and lost 4: 6, 5: 7.
The doubles brought the decision for the TC Großhesselohe: Kohlschreiber/Zuk clearly prevailed against Cuevas/Viola 6:4, 6:2, Struff won together with TCG veteran Matthias Bachinger (ATP 424) 6:2, 6:4 against Kopriva/Nils Langer.
It seemed unlikely that Düsseldorf would fail at the season finale at bottom light Ludwigshafen, but TC Großhesselohe kept up the pressure just a few kilometers away, on the other side of the Rhine in Mannheim, with a clear 6-0 victory.
The six individual victories were ensured by Philipp Kohlschreiber against the 18-year-old German talent from the Oberhachinger TennisBase, Philip Florig, 6:1, 6:2, Matthias Bachinger in his first individual game of the current season against Robin Kern with 5:7 , 7: 5, 10: 8, Peter Gojowczyk against 18-year-old Max Rehberg (ATP 786) with 6: 0, 7: 5 and Jan-Lennard Struff with a 6: 2, 3: 6, 10: 8 against Daniel Cukierman (ATP 269).
The victory over Mannheim was already certain - there were clear double victories by Struff / Kohlschreiber against Rehberg / Florig (6: 1, 7:
