ATP Munich: Otte in the round of 16, Rehberg awards match balls
Oscar Otte won his opening match at the ATP tournament in Munich with a convincing performance.
by SID
last edit: Apr 18, 2023, 02:25 pm
It was uncomfortably cool, the opponent was number five - but Oscar Otte wasn't impressed. In his opening match at the ATP tournament in Munich, the 29-year-old from Cologne showed a convincing performance against Sebastian Baez from Argentina, the 6: 2, 7: 5 against the clay court specialist, which is significantly higher in the world rankings, was only his fourth victory on the tour in this year, the first since mid-March.
Otte was correspondingly relieved. "It was a very important win after the past few weeks and months, important for confidence," he said. After his summer high last year and climbing to 36th place in the world rankings, Otte has now dropped to 94th place, not least because of an operation on his left knee. The operation took place in July, and since then the joint has been pinching again and again.
Otte now against Cobolli
The return to the top form of the previous year is therefore dragging on. The week before last, Otte almost played his way into the main draw of the Masters in Monte Carlo, but missed a 5-1 lead in the third set of the decisive qualifying match. He then, reported Otte with a grin, offered his rackets to Jan-Lennard Struff's coach Carsten Arriens out of frustration when he returned to the player area: "You can have them for your children." Arriens declined.
Otte's next opponent after winning over the world number 30. Baez is Italian qualifier Flavio Cobolli. Another win will see him in a quarter-final against Alexander Zverev, who had a bye in the first round. "I still have a score to settle," said Otte jokingly, but then emphasized: "I'm going from round to round here. I think I can go a step further."
Rehberg awards match points
Yannick Hanfmann (Karlsruhe) had already reached the round of 16 before Otte, where he meets Holger Rune from Denmark, who won his first tournament in Munich last year and has since climbed to seventh in the world rankings. Rune had a bye in the first round, as did Zverev, who intervenes in the tournament on Wednesday. First opponent is Christopher O'Connell (Australia) or Ugo Humbert (France).
Max Hans Rehberg, on the other hand, missed a big surprise. The 19-year-old local hero, only number 412 in the world rankings, missed two match points against Hungary's Marton Fucsovics, who is ranked 75th, and lost after a tough struggle 6: 4, 6: 7 (6: 8), 3: 6. Rehberg had his two chances to win in only his third match in an ATP tournament with a score of 6: 4 in the tie-break. Before that he had already been in the lead with two breaks.
Here is the individual tableau in Munich
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