As last year, the winner of the Short Track Matchplay 2013 is Florian Fritsch. He remained undefeated in all matches and more than lived up to his role as favourite. As the first in his group after day 1, Tobi Jablonka from Oberammergau, Germany, was waiting for Fritsch in the round of sixteen, but he already sent him out of the race at hole 8. In the quarterfinals, he was up against Chris Guy from England, who lives in Garmisch and who moved up to the starting field only a few days earlier due to an injury-related cancellation by Dennis Küpper. Guy managed to force Fritsch onto the ninth track, but could not make up for his deficit of “1 down” and had to admit defeat to the later winner.
At 1:00 p.m. and 1:10 p.m. the semi-finals started, in which Florian Fritsch and Jochen Lupprian faced each other, as well as David Gersztein and promoter Marcel Haremza, who had previously knocked out co-host Christoph Günther in the round of sixteen.
Haremza and Gersztein delivered a thrilling match that forced Haremza into extra time with a birdie on the ninth hole. In the playoff on hole 1 David Gersztein managed a birdie, which Haremza could not counter and was eliminated.
The second match in the semi-finals was watched by numerous spectators as the weather got better and better. They experienced a sensational competition at the highest level. In total, the two professionals played twelve birdies and one eagle on nine holes. After Lupprian won the first two courses with birdie and was therefore quickly “2 on”, he had to give the third hole to Fritsch, who then started a fabulous run of Eagle, Birdie, Birdie, Birdie from course 6. Lupprian, who himself played birdie, birdie, birdie on the last four holes and a par at the end, was finally beaten by Florian Fritsch.
So the final was fixed and it became quickly clear that Fritsch did not let the scepter out of his hand. Despite a strong resistance of the young professional Gersztein, Florian Fritsch was in a captivating and unbeatable form on the days in Open.9 Golf Eichenried, so that after eight holes played, the winner of the Short Track Matchplay 2013 was determined and could be happy about a prize money of 7,000 €.
In the match for 3rd place, Haremza was able to prevail over Lupprian and thus took 3rd place for himself.
