Sebastian Ofner has continued his winning streak and is in the final of the Challenger tournament in Astana/Kazakhstan.
Austria’s Davis Cup player Ofner (ATP No. 207) defeated the 18-year-old Alexei Popyrin (Australia/ATP No. 376) 6:3, 6:3 in the semi-finals of the 125,000 Euro hard court event on Saturday. 1:39 the Styrian converted his second match point after making a double mistake in the first. The success catapults Ofner into the top 165 of the world.
In the final, Ofner, who was seeded third in the President’s Cup, will face either his Austrian compatriot Jurij Rodionov or Daniel Brands on Sunday. The man from Deggendorf, who in August 2013 was already ranked 51st in the world rankings, won his first title after six years at the ATP Challenger in Recanati, Italy, at the beginning of July.
The 22-year-old Ofner, who attracted attention a good year ago with his third round entry in Wimbledon and the following semi-final participation in Kitzbühel, managed the preliminary decision against Popyrin when he broke 4-2 in the second set. It was the fourth time he was able to take off his opponent’s serve this afternoon. Ofner himself only lost his service once.
Kazakhstan’s top seed Mikhail Youzhny had already failed in the second round due to Indian qualifier Saketh Myneni, who is 252 places behind the Russian veteran in the ATP ranking.
Ofner could have gotten tips for the duel with youngster Popyrin from Dominic Thiem. The French Open finalist had often trained with Popyrin at the Stade Roland Garros last year. In 2017, the Sydney teenager had won the junior competition in Paris.