Maximilian Marterer (22) was eliminated in the third round of the Australian Open.
The World Rankings 94. from Nuremberg lost to the American Tennys Sandgren after 2:56 hours 7:5,3:6,5:6,5:7,6:7 (5:7) in the duel of the Melbourne debutants. Before the first Grand Slam of the year, Marterer had lost all 14 matches on the ATP Tour.
Against Sandgren, Marterer lacked the strength to continue his performance against Cedric-Marcel Stebe (Vaihingen/Enz) and Fernando Verdasco (Spain). On Thursday he had spent three and a half hours on the court at temperatures of more than 30 degrees Celsius. Sandgren, on the other hand, had no problems with the Swiss Stan Wawrinka, who had just recovered from a knee injury, and saved his strength.
The move into the top 32 pros round in Melbourne was by far the biggest success of his career for Marterer, after the tournament he will be the highest in the world ranking as never before. The two victories also pay off financially: 113,863 are added to the $322,231 he has earned so far.