Oscar Otte is eliminated in the first round of the French Open 2018: The Cologne Lucky Loser lost 6:3, 5:7, 2:6 and 1:6 against Matteo Berrettini from Italy.
Oscar Otte’s jump from Friday to Sunday was a very short one: Two days ago Otte lost Carlos Taberner in three sets on Court 9 in the qualifying final, now he was facing Matteo Berrettini in the 6-man Lucky Loser. literally a ball throw from each other of practiced ball children.
In sporting terms, however, the 24-year-old from Cologne experienced a quantum leap: the first participation in the main competition of a Grand Slam tournament, a special feature for the world’s number 157. Which is also financially not uninteresting: 40,000 euros will be granted to the loser of a first-round match. Whether these actually have to be shared with those who stayed at home remains to be seen.
And Matteo Berrettini is indeed one of the cheaper draws that a major tableau can offer. Otte started confidently as a serve. One break was enough to take the set against the Italian, who is just double-digit in the ATP charts.
The former German champion did not lack support: Besides some German fans, Davis Cup boss Michael Kohlmann and his protégé Maximilian Marterer also watched the match, as did Tobias Summer, coach of Florian Mayer.
But towards the end of the second set Berrettini got into the match better and better, scored 7:5 on the first break and did not let anything burn on afterwards. The Italian won sets three and four 6:2 and 6:1.
Otte was not the only player to benefit from the non-run of a qualifier: on the court Philippe Chatrier, for example, opened instead of Viktor Troicki the Egyptian Mohamed Safwat. What opponent Grigor Dimitrov probably only learned a few minutes before the match began. Ruben Bemelmans and Simone Bolelli also benefited from the injury of others. The lucky streak of the Italian will not last long, however, he will meet Rafael Nadal instead of Alexandr Dolgopolov.