UTTC Salzburg lost 2: 4 in the table tennis Bundesliga final in Wiener Neustadt. The youngsters couldn’t quite match their heroic semi-final performance.
After the sensational semi-final victory against Wels, Salzburg dreamed of their first title in their club’s history. However, this dream burst in the final against Wiener Neustadt. The bottom line was that the Lower Austrians deserved to win and secured the championship for the first time. “Congratulations to our opponents, they were better in the crucial moments,” said chairman Günther Höllbacher as a fair loser.
The evening started absolutely as desired for the people of Salzburg. One Koyo Kanamitsu gave his opponent Felix Wetzel hardly a chance and brought the outsiders into the lead. Then Francisco Sanchi had to admit defeat to the best player in Lower Austria, Thomas Konecny, with 0: 3.
It was already clear in the run-up to the duel that singles number three and doubles would point the way. From Salzburg’s point of view, semi-final hero Carlo Rossi unfortunately did not have a good day. The young Italian lost his game surprisingly clearly with 0: 3 and also in doubles he lost together with Kanamitsu just 2: 3. “The doubles were decisive, maybe our otherwise nervous youngsters were a bit nervous,” said Höllbacher. So the UTTC had its back to the wall even before the last two individual ones, and Wetzel made everything clear in the end.
Pride prevails
Despite the failure so close to the big goal, satisfaction outweighs the Salzburgers. “The finals were a great success, hopefully we were able to get a lot of people in our state enthusiastic about table tennis.”