Florian Mayer, who will end his career after the US Open, lost 2-6, 4-6 to the 2015 finalist Andreas Seppi (Italy).
“I don’t know what function yet, but we’ll meet again. The best moment here was of course the title win two years ago,” said Mayer, who was honoured for his career after the match by tournament director Ralf Weber.
Mayer’s defeat this evening made Germany’s worst result in 22 years perfect. At the Gerry Weber Open, which has been held since 1993, not a single German player had reached the quarter-finals in 1996. Of the eight German players who had started in Halle, only Kohlschreiber and Mayer had reached the round of 16. This was already the worst balance since 2006.
Seppi now faces Borna Coric from Croatia, who beat Nikoloz Basilashvili (Georgia) 6-4, 6-2. At the beginning of the tournament the world ranking 34th Coric had eliminated last year’s second seeded finalist Alexander Zverev.
But not only the German players have problems, the Wimbledon dress rehearsal is developing more and more to the death of favourites. After the elimination of the sixth-placed Kohlschreiber, only two of the eight seeded players in the world ranking first Federer and the Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut (No. 4) are still in the tournament.
Third in the world rankings Zverev, French Open finalist Dominic Thiem (Austria) and the seeded Frenchmen Lucas Pouille (No. 5) and Richard Gasquet (No. 8) as well as Kei Nishikori (Japan/No. 7) failed early.