Maximilian Marterer faces the match of his life at the French Open in Paris – against the world number 1: Rafael Nadal (2nd match after 11 am, in the live ticker).
Last year Maximilian Marterer had had enough of the somewhat larger world of tennis. When he had lost a first-round match on the ATP tour and at Grand Slams for the 14th time in a row at the US Open, the Franconian decided to withdraw temporarily. From then on he tried his luck again on manageable stages, at the Challenger competitions. He just wanted to feel the feeling of winning more often again and not be confronted with the reports of how many failures. And indeed, the experiment of controlled descent succeeded, torture won again more regularly, fueled self-confidence. “Sometimes,” says Marterer, “you have to take a step back to make progress again.”
2017, the dark days of that series of games – it all seems to be far, very far back at the moment. Torterer (22) is, from a German perspective, the rising star of the men’s tennis season. At the French Open, his upswing even reached a temporary peak, at the right time in the right place – at one of those precious tennis tournaments that determine the status and relevance of a professional.
First, on Corpus Christi Saturday, Torterer beat 19-year-old Canadian Denis Shapavalov, one of the globally marketed faces of the so-called NextGeneration campaign of the ATP, then he also completed the not uncomplicated compulsory task against Estonian Jürgen Zopp – and now no one else than Rafael Nadal, the ten-time champion, is waiting as the next rival in the round of 16. The irresistible fighter who has left his mark on this tournament like no other in tennis history. It is the match of life for torturers, a reward for everything he has invested in his own career in sweat and tears over the last few years. And also for how he has always managed to get rid of disappointments and not give up. “I already have a lot of staying power,” says Marterer, who could move up into the Top 50 for the first time in the world rankings after the Paris event.
And now, and first of all against Nadal, it’s a task, a challenge that couldn’t be greater in tennis. Nadal rules Roland Garros with a merciless lust for victory. He can’t get enough successes and titles, since his teenage years and his triumphant debut in 2005 he only lost twice, 2009 against Robin Söderling from Sweden and 2016 against the later winner Novak Djokovic. In 2018, however, he once again seems unstoppable and irresistible; he lives up to his nickname on the French newspaper boulevard – where he is often referred to as a “tennis monster” or “Grand Slam cannibal”. “I’ll do my best. And then you have to see what it’s enough for,” says Marterer. The young German is no stranger to Nadal, he often served the Grand Master as a sparring partner in junior times, especially when Nadal had to simulate matches against a left-handed player. Marterer also does his tennis things with his left hand, he plays quite similar to Nadal, only not with this uncanny force and the mighty twist.
Torture has not been a high-flyer in his childhood and youth days in tennis. Often enough, there were doubts in associations as to whether the Nuremberger would really make it to the professional circuit, whether he could make a breakthrough in the travelling circus. The difficult year 2017 did not reduce doubts, but then Marterer quickly benefited from working with Davis Cup captain Michael Kohlmann – who also took care of progress as a personal coach. Torterer won more match-hardness, more assertiveness, he simply sought his chances more resolutely, but also more patiently. “He took a strong step forward, improving all the strokes,” says Kohlmann, the unagitated trainer. Stability and self-confidence are needed above all to assert oneself at the outstanding industry meetings, at the Grand Slam festivities.
Already at the Australian Open, right at the beginning of the year, Marterer caused a surprise sensation and began to shoot his story. After months of disappointment in the 2017 season, at least in the premier league of tennis, the young German immediately landed a coup in Melbourne when, after compatriot Cedric-Marcel Stebe, he defeated the savvy Spaniard Fernando Verdasco. Only in round three did he narrowly miss the American Sandgren. Shortly thereafter, he reached the quarter-finals of the ATP competition in Sofia, it was, taken together, the long-awaited arrival in the top field of his sport, also the completion of a teaching and learning process in the transition from junior to adult tennis. “He is a player who will give us a lot of pleasure,” said Boris Becker, head of the men’s department at DTB, back then. As a reward for their hard-fought ascent, Becker and Kohlmann took the Franconian to Spain for the Davis Cup match in April.
There Torterer saw the irresistible matador Rafael Nadal swirl across the square, the man responsible for the German dreams of victory finally burst. They meet again in Paris, but then the Nuremberg man is not sitting on the sidelines, as an uninvolved spectator. No, he’s face to face with Nadal, professional to professional. “It’s nice,” says Marterer, “that I have worked out these opportunities now.” He is a little proud, says Marterer, “of the way I’ve turned things around in the last few months”.