ATP Stuttgart: Greetings from Karlsruhe, two Germans in the second round
With Yannick Hanfmann and Peter Gojowczyk, two local heroes have made it to the round of 16 at the ATP Tour 250 tournament in Stuttgart. The game between Dominik Koepfer and Jurij Rodionov had to be interrupted.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Jun 09, 2021, 04:26 pm
From Jens Huiber from Stuttgart
Apart from full-time meteorologists, nobody in Germany - probably even in all of Europe - has a closer look at the current weather situation than Norbert Peick. The renowned head referee of many ATP tournaments, Davis Cup games and also the first Laver Cup in Prague (the weather did not play a role there) is the supreme authority at the MercedesCup in Stuttgart this week. And when Peick announces in the morning that a thunderstorm in Karlsruhe could become a problem in the afternoon, then this must be taken seriously.
But after not even Norbert Peick was infallible, the Karlsruhe greetings were initially limited to a few raindrops, which interrupted the game at the traditional ATP Tour 250 tournament in Stuttgart for a few minutes. But a good hour after the topic of Karlsruhe became acute for the first time on Wednesday: Yannick Hanfmann, who was born there, beat Jeremy Chardy 6: 4 and 6: 4 in his first lawn match of the year, and meets Ugo in round two Humbert.
Shapovalov trains with the woman mom
At the same time as the game was running, the tournament's top favorites familiarized themselves with the events: Denis Shapovalov, number one in Stuttgart this year, trained under the watchful eye of mother Tessa. Félix Auger-Aliassime and Alex de Minaur practiced together that numbers three and four could only meet in the final. Only Hubert Kurkacz threw himself into the competition, the appearance in doubles at Lukasz Kubot's side probably also had Olympic ulterior motives.
Peter Gojowczyk has nothing to do with Tokyo 2021 or with Karlsruhe in general, this did not prevent Dachau from moving into the second round. Gojowczyk had to work off Ilya Ivashka, the intended opponent John Millman withdrew at short notice. In any case, Gojo won 5: 7, 6: 4 and 6: 2.
Dominic Stricker surprised
At around 4 p.m. Norbert Peick showed all the wrongdoers that the rain that made alpine meadows lush was not enough for the tennis player as such on grass. Which means that Peter Gojowczyk also has to wait a little longer for his opponent. The tendency could be Dominik Koepfer, who at the time of the interruption was leading 4-2 against Jurij Rodionov.
Dominic Stephan Stricker made a positive contribution. The 18-year-old Swiss, who was junior champion at the French Open last autumn, defeated veteran Radu Albot 7: 6 (4) and 7: 6 (5). And on Thursday against Hubert Hurkacz in the Bütt, number two of the tableau.
Here the single tableau in Stuttgart
stuttmap