Australian Open: Haider-Maurer misses surprise and second round

Andreas Haider-Maurer dropped out in the first round of his first Australian Open participation in three years.

The Innsbrucker missed 6:7 (3:7), 3:6,4:6 against the world ranking-37. Alexandr Dolgopolov a surprise. After 2:04 hours Haider-Maurer could not defend the fourth match point of the Ukrainian on outercourt 19. In the first set, the underdog fought his way back after a break, but then lost out in the tiebreak. Haider-Maurer made 52 unforced mistakes – with 24 wins.

After a tear in the tendon plate of the sole of the foot,”AHM” had to undergo surgery and had failed for a total of 19 months. It was not until mid-2017 that he celebrated his comeback. Haider-Maurer, currently ranked number 448 in the world ranking, had made use of his Protected Ranking (No. 63) in Melbourne. In 2015, he had his best ranking to date with 47th place.

Haider-Maurer was the first of four Austrians to be eliminated in the main field. While Dominic Thiem, fifth on the world rankings, will not be in action until Tuesday, Gerald Melzer and qualifier Dennis Novak will be playing on Monday.