Stefano Travaglia inspires again at HTC Blau-Weiss Krefeld

Blue and white Krefeld and TK Aachen 3:3
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Stefano Travaglia delights the fans again

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Stefano Travaglia once again captured the hearts of the fans with his spectacular victory.
Photo: BRAUER photo agency/Stefan Brauer

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Krefeld The top player from Italy saves four match points and wins his singles, but in the end HTC Blau-Weiss Krefeld and TK Kurhaus Aachen share the points. On Sunday we go to the favorite TK Grün-Weiss Mannheim.

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Did he have any idea that he would spend such an afternoon – with ideal external conditions would see first-class international tennis, extremely exciting games, a spectacle. In any case, the unknown spectator said when he was asked for an entrance fee of 20 euros at the cash register: “I’ll be happy to do that.” He was one of around 500 visitors who came on Friday afternoon to watch the encounter between the HTC Blau- Weiß Krefeld and the TK Kurhaus Lambertz Aachen. None of them had to regret coming because what they were offered was first class.

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Hajo Plönes, honorary president and team boss of the blue and whites, has been with us for decades. He used to hardly watch a game because his nerves couldn’t take it. When things got exciting, he went for a walk in the woods. It’s a good thing that he’s at least become a little more mellow as he gets older – he would have missed something.

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Already the first two singles had it all. Gastao Elias, who was the only one to win in the 5-1 defeat against Gladbach a week ago, showed a lot of heart again and didn’t give up the second set with a 4-5 deficit, fought for the tie-break, led after 2 5-6 down with 6-5 and still lost 6-7. In the end, the cheers didn’t help either. How good that next door Andrea Arnaboldi just kept the upper hand in an equally exciting match.

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The top game of the day between Italy’s Stefano Travaglia and France’s Quentin Halys fully deserved the name. Both sets went to tiebreaks, with each of the two winning one. The champions tiebreak had to bring the decision. A week ago, the Krefelders had lost out in three out of four of these cases. And this time, too, weal and woe hung by a thread, because not even this final overtime was enough to determine the winner. If Travaglia was already the crowd favorite last year, this interaction between the fans and him became a very important factor. 2:7 he was almost hopelessly behind in the Champions tie-break, fought his way up to 7:9, fended off four match points and triumphed with 13:11. “The spectators pushed me to victory,” he said after the important success.

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And since his compatriot Federico Gaio also won the second champions tie-break of the day 10:8 in an equally dramatic game, the hosts were 3:1 in the lead after the individual games. “I’m incredibly happy that I won and I’m happy to be able to play for Blau-Weiss in the Bundesliga again,” said Gaio.

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Because of the lead, victory was within reach and yet so far away, because the Aacheners are traditionally incredibly strong in doubles. In fact, the Krefelders had the great opportunity to get the decisive point in both doubles. They also proved their great team spirit and fighting spirit here, much to the delight of the audience, but in the end both doubles were narrowly lost. But it was no more than a tiny drop of bitterness that afternoon and early evening.

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