ATP Generali Open: Very strong – Yuri Rodionov qualifies for Kitzbühel

An Austrian has already qualified for the main field of the Generali Open: Jurij Rodionov won convincingly against Lorenzo Sonego

Jurij Rodionov literally missed the words when his entry into the main field of the Generali Open 2018 was certain. 6:1 and 6:4 against Lorenzo Sonego on the scoreboard – again no set loss for the young Austrian, who had clearly defeated Ernests Gulbis in round one. Rodionov took a little time for the verbal classification of these performances, he preferred to serve the autograph wishes of the fans on the Center Court.

And there were quite a few of them in Kitzbühel that Sunday.

On display was a Yuri Rodionov who was convincing with variation and tempo. And also showed strong nerves: After the finally decisive break to the 5:4 in the second set Sonego won again a 0:30, but Rodionov hit the lines, immediately used his first match point.

Rodionov is currently ranked 255th in the ATP World Ranking, having reached the semi-finals of the Astana Challengers. In Almaty there was even the first tournament success on this level a few weeks ago.

Rodionov has already scored twelve points for the rankings with his entry into the main draw, and whoever has followed the matches against Gulbis and Sonego will come to the conclusion: That doesn’t have to be all.

Yannick Hanfmann, who defeated his German compatriot Yannick Maden in two sets, is also a sure contender.

Here the qualification tableau in Kitzbühel