Experienced Florian Mayer missed the jump into Sofia’s main draw. The 34-year-old was defeated in the final qualifying round by former French Open semi-finalist Ernests Gulbis and has been waiting for success in a major tournament since September 2017.
In recent years, Mayer (34), who has repeatedly been thrown back by injuries, lost to the world rankings-199. Gulbis from Latvia in 54 minutes with 4:6,1:6. The former Davis Cup player from Bayreuth, who is ranked 72nd in the ATP ranking, had to give up his service four times.
Mayer, who was top seeded in the qualifying round, last won a match at the US Open last year in the main draw of a major tournament. This season “Flo” had failed at the Australian Open as well as at the Hartplatz event in Doha/Katar at the beginning of the season. In the meantime, he had reached the quarter-finals at a challenge in Canberra, where he lost to Victor Estrella Burgos from the Dominican Republic. The 1.91 metre tall Mayer won his last title at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle/Westphalia in 2016.
In Sofia Stan Wawrinka from last year’s winner Grigor Dimitrov has taken over the role of number one, Philipp Kohlschreiber is the number four in the seed list. Born in Augsburg, he enjoys a walk-through in round one, then either meets Sergiy Stakhovsky or a qualifier. Maximilian Marterer, who has reached the third round of the Australian Open, will be starting with Malek Jaziri from Tunisia.