French Open: Maximilian Marterer and Jan-Lennard Struff defy rain and opponents

Maximilian Marterer and Jan-Lennard Struff have reached the second round at the French Open 2018: The two German Davis Cup players each won their opening matches in three sets.

By Jens Huiber from Paris

Michael Kohlmann and Lars Uebel spend an astonishing amount of time together. The Davis Cup boss and Philipp Kohlschreiber’s coach both work at the TennisBase Oberhaching, the facility on which most German male tennis professionals prepare, keep fit and play.

Sometimes the paths separate, for example when Kohlschreiber and Maximilian Marterer perform at different tournament venues, but more often Uebel and Kohlmann can watch their protégés’ matches together. Most recently in Munich, on Tuesday in Roland Garros.

The third in the group, Tobias Summerer, who was already on tour with Marterer this year, would certainly have joined them. Summerer had to take care of the preparation of his main task, Florian Mayer. Mayer was to play Mischa Zverev later this afternoon.

Maximilian Marterer took the coaches’ support with pleasure, especially against an opponent like Ryan Harrison, who has no reputation as a socializer on the tennis court. Marterer started the match concentrated on court 9, Harrison already complained to the chair referee in his third game about what he saw as slippery conditions.

6:1 after less than half an hour, that’s how Marterer imagined his entry into the French Open. And from the Franconian point of view, things continued in exactly the right way in the ever-increasing drizzle. 6:3 the second pass for torturers.

“Our weather”, Lars Uebel had shouted shortly before the end of the second act, the German football fan knows the circumstances as Fritz Walter weather. At that point, however, it got too wet for Grand Slam tennis, the game had to be interrupted for almost an hour.

In the third set, Marterer took a 5-4 break lead, Harrison fought back. However, the German Davis Cup winner struck again immediately, with the second attempt serving torturer with only one counterpoint.

Jan-Lennard Struff was warm again: The man from Warstein had also won the first two sets before the rain break against Evgeny Donskoy 6:1 and 6:3 – the last, however, clearly 6:0. Torturer gets it to do with Denis Shapovalov.