At the ATP tournament in Sofia it’s going great for Maximilian Marterer at the moment. The 22-year-old left-hander does not want to pat himself on the back – the seasonal goals of the up-and-coming Swiss franc are ambitious.
Maximilian Marterer didn’t let himself be driven mad. 14 series defeats in ATP main fields can throw a weak mind out of the way. Not so martyr. The late bloomer from Nuremberg broke the Gordian knot on the biggest stage possible – at the Australian Open he even eliminated ex-Melbourne semi-finalist Fernando Verdasco after his opening win against Cedrik-Marcel-Stebe.
“That was something very special for me. It was great that, despite the heat, I was still physically on my feet in the fifth set against such a top player,”said Marterer, looking back proudly in conversation with the ATP website.
The valuable experience and self-confidence of the Grand Slam festival “Down under” has transported the world’s number 82 to Sofia. In the Bulgarian capital, Marterer is in the quarter-finals, having won two sets against Malek Jaziri and Joao Sousa. There he will meet Mirza Basic on Friday evening.
Caution is called for: the 26-year-old Bosnian has made a name for himself as Germany’s horror at the indoor hard court tournament in the Arena Armeec. After Florian Mayer, Basic also won against Philipp Kohlschreiber.
The peculiar thing is that these are exactly the kind of companions with whom Torterer worked hard at the tennis base in Oberhaching for his upswing:”We often train together. Florian and Philipp are absolute world class players – and have been with us for so long. Your tips will help me enormously.”
As in Australia, Marterer will not be accompanied by Davis Cup boss Michael Kohlmann, but by the long-standing coach of Florian Mayer, Tobias Summerer. Kohlmann observes Marterer from a distance and gives his protégé a good chance against Basic. But caution is called for: The balls in Sofia are bouncing off very high, the Bosnian can cope very well with it, Kohlmann told tennisnet. Marterer had to show his best tennis, something he hadn’t been able to do all the time against Tenny’s Sandgren in Melbourne.
Kohlschreiber was already number 16 in the world, and Mayer made it to 18th place. Spheres that could one day reach torturers. But as the second youngest of eight Germans in the top 100, he doesn’t want to rush into anything:”The next goal is the top 50 – that’s where I’d really like to be at the end of the year”.
On the Challenger Tour, Marterer won 21 of his 23 matches between September and October. With the three titles in the back from last autumn, the breakthrough finally took place on the next higher level.
In spite of all modesty:”Setting new goals should never stop,”knows the ambitious youngster, for whom there could be one or two steps up the career ladder in Sofia.