On Thursday, Austria's young talent will be a guest at the Wiener Stadthalle where he will be answering questions from Austria's former world No. 1 Thomas Muster during "Tom's Talk" in the afternoon and will also be honored as Austria's Young Player of the Year during the talk show.

There really is a lot to talk about: In Chengdu, names such as Andrey Rublev, Emil Ruusuvuori and Holger Rune - all of whom can now be found among the world's top players on the ATP Tour - were victorious before Schwärzler. The week before, Schwärzler had also triumphed at the Osaka Mayor's Cup - a similar feat was last achieved by Dominic Thiem in 2011, when he triumphed at the Orange Bowl.

Targeting number 1 spot

In the ITF junior world rankings, Schwärzler thus moved up to third place. From an Austrian perspective, only Thiem, who made it to No. 2 in the junior rankings, has ever been ranked higher. Schwärzler, who is coached by former top player and current ÖTV sports director Jürgen Melzer, does not want to settle for that. The chance to reach number 1 at the end of the year is there. Current world number one Joao Fonseca (Brazil) is not playing any junior tournaments right now and number 2, Pacheco Mendez (Mexico), still has plenty of points to defend in the final weeks of the season. The lead of the two on Schwärzler is also manageable.

Melzer on a possible No. 1: "That's a nice goal, of course," Melzer confirms. "For that, he would probably have to play in Mérida (Mexico) and at the Orange Bowl in Florida." Regardless, Melzer is justifiably proud of his highly talented protégé's performance, "It was the clear goal of the Asia trip to reach the top 10. Not everything was perfect, but he took a step forward."

For Schwärzler, the goal for the year is quite clear: "Of course I want to become number 1. That would be incredible for me, the ÖTV and also for tennis in Austria in general. You have to be that honest."