Talent Rudolf Molleker missed his second victory on the ATP Tour at the grass court tournament in Halle/Westphalia. In the first round, the 17-year-old Berliner lost to Georgian Nikolos Basilashvili 4:6, 6:7 (5:7). With Philipp Kohlschreiber and Florian Mayer (both 34), the two former title holders in Halle, only two Germans have reached the round of 16.
Such a bad result for the German professionals had been in Halle in 2006, when only Tommy Haas and Mayer were in the round of the last 16.
“I really missed a lot of opportunities. That could have turned out differently,” said Molleker: “It would be a dream of mine if I could play the qualifiers at the US Open, otherwise the Australian Open is the big goal.
The world ranked 286th Molleker had won his first match on the ATP tour against Jan-Lennard Struff (Warstein) at the start of the grass court season in Stuttgart last week. In Halle, Molleker received a wildcard following the cancellation of the American John Isner due to injury.
At his first start in East Westphalia on Tuesday, Molleker’s game had been postponed to Wednesday after only four minutes at 1-0 from his point of view due to rain. Molleker was originally supposed to play Peter Gojowczyk (Munich), but as in Stuttgart last week, he had to cancel at short notice because of his hip injury.