ATP Challenger Ismaning: Local hero Max Rehberg causes a surprise
On Wednesday, the remaining first round games, the first round of 16 in singles and the remaining first round matches in doubles at the ATP Challenger tournament in Ismaning were played in the main draw. Two German players made it into the round of 16 in singles.
by p.m
last edit: Oct 13, 2022, 06:40 am
The local spectators awaited with great excitement the appearance of Landshamer Max Rehberg (ATP 596) against the Czech Tomas Machac (ATP 108), who was seeded at No. 2. The 19-year-old BTV player, who is in the peloton due to a wildcard, was in brilliant form most recently at the ITF M15 tournament in Forbach, France, when he clinched his first title on the men's Pro Circuit. From the beginning of the match, the TennisBase pro showed no signs of nervousness at his third appearance at the WOLFFKRAN OPEN and was able to use the only two breakballs of the match in the middle of the first set and at the beginning of the second round. After 62 minutes, Rehberg converted the match point to a 6:3, 6:4 victory in the last service game without losing a point.
" I tried to find a good rhythm on the serve, which I managed to do very well from the middle of the first set. I had a lot of first serves that were also well placed. My flat play just goes really well with the carpet and luckily after I broke it twice it was all over. At the moment I'm just feeling pure joy, because after the defeats at the start in Ismaning in the last two years, I really wanted this win ," commented the Bundesliga player from TK Grün-Weiss Mannheim. In the round of 16, Rehberg will challenge the Dutch veteran Robin Haase (ATP 304) tomorrow, who was able to put the Czech Zdenek Kolar (ATP 235) in his place in two sets.
Ejupovcic continues to win
On Court 1, qualifier Elmar Ejupovic (ATP 329) met the No. 6 seeded Swiss Antoine Bellier (ATP 194) in his first round match in the main draw. After a balanced start, 29-year-old Ejupovic was unable to take advantage of two break chances when the score was 5:5 and then gave up his serve to lose the set. But the man from Reutlingen didn't give up and, in addition to winning the tie-break in the second set, also secured the only break in the final round and triumphed 5:7, 7:6, 6:3 after just over two hours.
After the match, Ejupovic analyzed: " With Antoine, like in the last match against Mats Rosenkranz, I had to play against a player who serves dangerously on this surface as a left-hander. The serves today didn't have quite as much speed, but they had unpleasant slice variants. Throughout the match I tried to return solidly to my opponent's feet and I'm just happy to have won the match."
Slovakia's Lukas Klein (ATP 180), who defeated Otto Virtanen (ATP 258) from Finland in two sets yesterday, is waiting in the round of 16.
Masur is eliminated
A difficult task awaited the 19-year-old BTV youngster Philip Florig (ATP 874) from Aschaffenburg, who received the last wildcard for the main draw from the DTB, in his first round encounter. With a quarter-final entry from the qualification at the ATP 250 tournament in Tel Aviv and the subsequent entry into the final at the Challenger 90 tournament in France, his 32-year-old opponent Vasek Pospisil (ATP 122) traveled to Ismaning with a lot of self-confidence. With both players holding at love early on, the No. 3 seed Canadian secured the first break in game six, setting the stage for an unchallenged 6-3, 6-2 win in 56 minutes.
In the first round of 16 of the tournament, the 27-year-old TennisBase professional Daniel Masur (ATP 185) faced the Ukrainian Vitaliy Sachko (ATP 312). After losing the first round, Bückeburger, who was number 5, improved and equalized the set. In the final round, 25-year-old Sachko broke decisively in the sixth game and carried this lead to a 6:1, 6:7, 6:3 victory after 2:10 hours of play.