Maximilian Marterer is in the third round at the French Open 2018: The German Davis Cup player defeated Denis Shapovalov in four sets on Thursday in Paris.
By Jens Huiber from Paris
Should Maximilian Marterer and Denis Shapovalov not have known each other before their second round meeting in Roland Garros 2018, then the two opponents got a foretaste of the game from 9:45 a.m. on Court 1: side by side the two left-handers played themselves warm, torturers with Jan-Lennard Struff, Shapovalov with a hitting partner.
The real situation was won by outsiders from Franconia: Marterer won 5:7, 7:6 (4), 7:5 and 6:4 and in the third round he will face a Lucky Loser: either Ruben Bemelmans from Belgium or Jürgen Zopp from Argentina.
Torterer had more difficulties as a serve in the first set, but only gave up his service at the very last – and worst – moment: to lose 5:7 sets. The Franconian made two double mistakes, Shapovalov did not let himself be asked twice
The Canadian followed at the beginning of the second act with a 1-0 break for Marterer, but this time the German Davis Cup player made a comeback and had his first re-break in the match. Torturer followed, Shapovalov saved himself into the tiebreak, which he lost 4:7. Set equalization.
At about the same time, Kumpel Struff had just lost a 4-1 lead on Court 7 in the second round’s second round ruling against Steve Johnson, with a double mini-break. Struff couldn’t get anything after that.
For torturers, however, yes. He didn’t let up in the third set either. This time it was the German who secured the set 7:5 – and then, after a playing time of 3:11 hours also the match victory.
This puts Marterer in the third round of a Grand Slam tournament, as he did at the beginning of the year. At the Australian Open, however, Maximilian Marterer lost to the American Tennys Sandgren.