Maximilian Marterer (Nuremberg) retired in the second round of the ATP tournament in Miami/Florida. The 22 year old World Ranking-73. lost to the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, number four in the ranking, after a good start with 6:4, 2:6, 1:6.
Marterer, accompanied by Davis Cup boss Michael Kohlmann, defeated the strong Hungarian Marton Fucsovic in the first round and also set off strongly against last year’s favourite ATP World Champion. The German did not allow a single break point for Dimitrov in the first set and took advantage of one of four chances. However, as the match continued, the Bulgarian stabilized his serve, while Torterer had to give up his service four times. After almost 100 minutes Dimitrov left the Grandstand in Key Biscayne as the winner, now it gets to do with Jeremy Chardy.
The last German professional at the hard court tournament, endowed with around 7.9 million dollars, is Alexander Zverev from Hamburg. Germany’s number one will face the Russian Daniil Medvedev in his second round match on Saturday.
Juan Martin del Potro had some problems: The Indian Wells Champion had to go into extra time against Robin Haase, but won in three sets. Roberto Bautista Agut (against the young American Michael Mmoh) and David Goffin (against Joao Sousa), however, were eliminated. And above all Novak Djokovic, who lost to Benoit Paire in two sets.
Former world number one Angelique Kerber (Kiel) will play Anastasija Pavlyuchenkova from Russia and Carina Witthöft (Hamburg) against Zarina Diyas from Kazakhstan to reach the round of 16.
Here the single tableau of the men in Miami