Sebastian Ofner could not repeat his successful run from last year in Wimbledon. In the first round of qualifying, the Styrian player lost 4:6, 5:7, 7:9 to Daniel Gimeno-Traver.
In the first run Ofner was already in front with a break, but lost after a 4:3 the next three games. In the second set, the 22-year-old forced a decisive round with a late break to 6-5.
In this match, Ofner was quickly trailing 3-0 before securing the next five games in a row. At 5:3, he already had a match ball as a setback, but he didn’t use it. He then served for the match but had to give up his serve at 30.
Last year Ofner already survived a real thriller in the first qualifying round when he defeated Belgian Kimmer Coppejans 10:8. This time, however, his opponent had the better end, who used his third match point after two hours and 30 minutes.
With the defeat, Ofner loses 115 points and is expected to be placed in the top 200 of the world rankings.
Gerald and Jürgen Melzer fared much better. The first made short work of Nino Serdarusic from Croatia and now meets the German Dominik Köpfer, who defeated Tatsuma Ito 6:4, 6:3.
Should Gerald Melzer fail in the third qualifying round, he still has a good chance to come into the main field as Lucky Loser in the case of some cancellations. At the French Open, six qualifying losers were ultimately eligible.
Jürgen Melzer had to play Jozef Kovalik over three sets, but won 6:2 in the decisive set thanks to strong service games. He now meets the Japanese Go Soeda. Melzer has a ticket for the double competition: he got a wildcard together with Daniel Nestor.
Dennis Novak also reached the second round on Monday afternoon. Against Egor Gerasimov from Belarus, the 24-year-old never really got into trouble and dominated the match with early breaks. Novak’s next opponent is the winner of Max Purcell versus Donald Young.