Rudi Molleker caused a sensation with his first-round victory against the former third in the world rankings, David Ferrer. This was the first time he was rewarded for his courage.
In April, in the bullring in Valencia, he was the big spoilsport for tennis Germany. David Ferrer won the last singles match of the Davis Cup match between Spain and Germany in five dramatic sets against Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Ferrer has been one of the greats on sand in this epoch, a Grand Slam finalist in Paris in 2013, he can still be it in selected moments. But on Monday, now at the Rothenbaum in Hamburg, Ferrer (36) felt the hunger for victory of a daring boy, who is not even half as old as himself: The veteran, the endurance specialist and marathon runner, braved himself with all his might against a first-round defeat at the German Open.
But it was a vain struggle of love’: The triumphator of the day, not even the surprise player of the day was Rudi Molleker (17) from Oranienburg. One many believe to be the next big story in tennis.
In Germany and beyond. The Next Big Thing, as it is called in American. This whispering and talk about Molleker has been going on for years. The expectation that someone with similar potential will grow up as Alexander Zverev, who is four years older.
Together with Nicolas Kuhn, Molleker won the U14 World Championship for Germany in 2014. Kuhn is also one of the most talented players of his generation, although he now plays for the Spanish association. Molleker is now the player for whom hopes are also pinned on a bright Davis Cup future – together with Zverev, according to the dream of the DTB officials and coaches, one can return to the golden times, to cup victories and a general gain in significance.
He does not deal with this, Molleker says defensively, however, because “that is the distant future. I’m focusing on the moment. That’s for the best.” And, of course, correctly and naturally.
Molleker first has to overcome the hurdles of switching from junior to adult tennis, a time which, according to experience, offers more dangers than opportunities. But first, one thing about Molleker.
Unlike others in other years and years, he dares to enter this world of great tennis at an early age, whether on the hard channel tournaments on less scurrying stages. Or also at detours on the ATP tour, as in Stuttgart and Hamburg – inspired by the organiser’s wild cards.
Molleker has thus already found competitive hardness at the age of 17, at an age at which success is no longer a matter of course, as it used to be. But Molleker succeeded. This year he already won the top-class Challenger tournament in Heilbronn, he also won his first victory on the ATP tour in Stuttgart against Jan-Lennard Struff. And now he also showed in Hamburg what he can do, what potential he has.
“The feeling of beating an opponent like Ferrer is great,” said Molleker after his opening win, “I used to watch his matches on TV. Also those who took Ferrer to the Paris final in 2013 against Rafael Nadal. Molleker had already caused a stir at Rothenbaum a year ago, it was a curious script at the time.
In the final qualifying round, he beat Argentine Leonardo Mayer with a great performance, moved into the main field and then lost to Russian Karen Khachanov. Mayer, for his part, came into the competition as Lucky Loser, the profiteer of a colleague’s withdrawal, and won nothing else but the cup. Molleker had defeated the winner of the tournament without being the winner himself.
“It was still an important moment for me,” the teenager now says, “it showed me that I could already keep up with the tour players and even defeat them. It was a boost to self-confidence.” Molleker’s path in recent years has not been straightforward at all, nor has it led continuously upwards. Not enough times in the past he played his skills convincingly, he fluctuated between mediocrity and class performance.
He also occasionally seemed paralyzed by the pressure of expectation and did not get along with coaches who operated at his side or were placed at his side. The chemistry was not right with Michael Kohlmann, the Davis Cup captain. Molleker recently travelled a lot with the experienced DTB man Jan Velthuis, but the travelling quickly became too much for him. Thus a familiar picture is presented in Hamburg, Molleker on the road with father and brother.
Almost like Zverev, the man to whom Germany’s hopes for the future in men’s tennis initially apply. Hamburg would have been Zverev’s territory, he grew up here, he produced big headlines as a 17-year-old semi-finalist in 2014. But after Wimbledon Zverev now makes a wide turn around the sand courts, he already thinks of America, the hard courts there. And the US Open. So Molleker has free play to write his own crazy story at a young age. First in the round of 16, against the Slovakian qualifier Jozef Kovalik. And best afterwards, in further Rothenbaum rounds.