German tennis pros Jan-Lennard Struff (Warstein), Matthias Bachinger (Munich) and Maximilian Marterer (Nuremberg) all failed at the start of the grass court tournament in Halle in East Westphalia.
The 28-year-old local hero Struff lost to the fourth seeded Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut 4:6, 1:6, while the world ranking 159th Bachinger (31) lost against Kei Nishikori from Japan 3:6, 6:7 (3:7). In the second German-Japanese duel of the day, Marterer lost 4:6, 7:5, 3:6 against Yuichi Sugita.
In the second set, a 20-minute rain break helped Marterer to break the set 6-5, after which the world ranking-list 49th managed the decisive break to equalize the sets.
Struff remains without individual success in his home tournament even after his sixth start in the main field. “I thought I played a good match. I’ve played worse here,” said Struff: “I look forward to the tournament every year, but my emotions here are a bit bad. “It’s great to be here, but I’ve never won here before.”
A week ago, the world rankings 67th at the start of the grass court season in Stuttgart had also failed in the first round due to 17-year-old talent Rudolf Molleker (Berlin). Torterer, who failed at the French Open only in the round of the last 16 due to the later winner Rafael Nadal, was eliminated at Weissenhof in the round of the last eight.
On Tuesday, six more Germans have the chance to reach the round of 16 in the Wimbledon test, which is endowed with around two million euros. In addition to the Zverev brothers Alexander and Mischa, the former title holders Philipp Kohlschreiber (Augsburg) and Florian Mayer (Bayreuth), Peter Gojowczyk (Munich) and World Rankings-286th Molleker will only join the tournament on Tuesday. The same applies to world number one and record winner Roger Federer (Switzerland), who is playing for his tenth title in Halle.
Here the single panel in Halle