Premiere for the TC Weilheim: men 75 fight at home for the DM title

Created: 09/06/2022, 09:45 am

By: Paul Hopp

After the title in the regional league, it's about the German championship: the men's 75 of the TC Weilheim are hosts for the final tournament of the DTB.

The photo shows (from left) Günter Wilberg, Hans Trapp, sports director Reinhold Moser, Horst Becker and Roman Halisch.

© TC Weilheim

There's never been anything like it at TC Weilheim: For the first time, a TC team has the chance to win the German club championship.

And then the tournament also takes place at home.

Weilheim – The sun is already quite low in the cloudless sky, but the temperatures on the tennis court are still high.

That doesn't bother the four gentlemen who are currently playing a double match.

Günter Willberg, Hans Trapp, Horst Becker and Roman Halisch deliver fast-paced rallies.

Easy training game?

Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that!

"Debut," calls Trapp.

And until the game is actually decided, it goes back and forth a few times.

The men 75 of the tennis club (TC) Weilheim are busy training these days, because after all they have a real highlight coming up: the final round of the German club championship.

For the first time, a team from Weilheim has qualified for it.

And that's not all – the tournament will also take place on Saturday and Sunday, September 10th and 11th, at the Narbonner Ring facility.

"It's a huge event for us to be in the final round with a team," says TC sports director Reinhold Moser.

To also act as a host "is a unique thing".

Compared to the other teams that compete for the title every year, the Weilheimers are "a provincial club", says Moser.

In terms of sport, he clearly sees his team as the outsider in the four-team field.

"Anything other than fourth place would be a sensation."

TC Weilheim organizes a tournament for the DM title

In addition to TC Weilheim (as champion of the regional league south/east), TV Espelkamp-Mittwald (regional league west), TC Blau-Weiß Berlin (regional league north-east) and TV Buchschlag (regional league south-west) have signed up for the tournament qualified.

The hosts actually play "four Weilheimers", as Moser says, i.e. four locals.

With the three opponents "that's not really the case".

The top favorite should be TV Espelkamp-Mittwald.

The team won the title in 2019 and became runners-up in 2018.

Number one for North Rhine-Westphalia is Jairo Vealsco Ramirez, who previously played in the Davis Cup for Colombia and is currently number three in the world rankings in the 75 age group.

Last October he won the mixed competition at the Super Senior World Championships together with the German Reinhilde Adams.

Dutchman Ed Sasker is number two and Stephan Koudelka is number three.

The man from Prague, now 77 years old, reached the third round at the French Open in 1969 and 1970.

Opponents arrive with former professionals

The Italian Antonio Claudi, the reigning men's 75 world champion, plays for TV Buschlang. As an unseeded player, he won the tournament in Mallorca.

Finally, the TC Blau-Weiss Berlin is one of the most traditional tennis clubs in Germany.

Founded in 1899, the club opened in 1926 a facility with a center court that could accommodate 6,000 spectators in natural grandstands – there was no larger stadium in Europe at the time.

The top-class team from Berlin is the women's team, which took fifth place among seven clubs in the 1st Bundesliga.

Which relay champion is responsible for hosting the finals is determined by the DTB for years.

The men's 75 determine their German title holder this year from the champion of the south-east relay.

The final tournament of the women's 60, for example, is this season at the champion North East.

The club from the district town is happy to host, but “it also costs a decent amount,” says sports director Moser.

At the "Players Night" the guests and their families are kept free.

Finding a room was unexpectedly difficult for head referee Martin Zorn, who is traveling from Cologne – it's vacation time.

After some back and forth, Moser found an adequate place to stay.

Weilheim-Penzberg newsletter: Everything from your region!

Our Weilheim-Penzberg newsletter informs you regularly about all the important stories from the Weilheim and Penzberg region - including all the news about the Corona crisis in your community.

Sign up here.

The semi-finals are on Saturday, September 10th.

Game starts at 10 a.m.

Who will compete against whom is yet to be determined.

The referee creates a ranking based on the lineups (and the players' performance points).

The top-ranked team competes against the number four-seeded team.

The number two plays against three.

The final and the match for third place will be played on Sunday, September 11, at 10 a.m.

The Weilheimers will compete with Trapp, Becker, Willberg and Halisch.

Wilfried Dittrich acts as a substitute.

Even if Moser thinks the TC is an outsider, he still hopes for a surprise.

"We have a very compact team that can also stand up to nominally stronger teams." In the league, the Weilheimers kept the favorite TC Bad Reichenhall behind them, who had finished third in the 2021 DM finals.

And the hosts trained well in advance anyway.