Maximilian Marterer has reached the round of 16 at the ATP World Tour 250 tournament in Kitzbühel. The German Davis Cup player defeated Jürgen Zopp from Estonia 6:4, 3:6 and 6:3.
By Jens Huiber from Kitzbühel
If it’s true, it’s true. That was the motto that Davis Cup captain Michael Kohlmann gave out for his protégé Maximilian Marterer and his performances at the Generali Open 2018. Which is why the left-hander has been training in Kitzbühel since Friday, familiarizing himself with the altitude.
Against Jürgen Zopp, Marterer had to reach deep into his arsenal, after all, the Estonian had arrived in Kitzbühel with the recommendation of taking part in the semi-finals in Gstaad. They also like to play high up in Switzerland, so Zopp was well prepared.
The last and so far only meeting of the two was not allowed to serve as a yardstick, Torterer was in the third round in Paris a few weeks ago the clearly better, because above all also fresher players. The 30-year-old from Talinn had proved himself in the rounds before over five sets, torturer used the favor of the hour.
In Kitzbühel, Zopp showed no signs of fatigue, only lacking efficiency in the use of breakballs in the first set. Torterer made it better, won the first round 6:4.
The advantage of a 1:00 p.m. start in Kitzbühel are the clear lighting conditions, Dennis Novak had lamented the light-shadow game as difficult after his first-round victory against Yuri Rodionov. The disadvantage of the early beginning time: the heat. Which, however, is in keeping with Marterer’s style of playing. The drier the base, the better the bounce on serve and forehand.
What didn’t help the German Davis Cup player in set two, Zopp’s drive strokes, rather flat, found their way into the field more and more often.
In the decision, however, it was again torture, which provided early for clear conditions, after the 1:1 no more game delivered and after into the eighth-finals of the ATP World Tour 250 tournament entered. Mikhail Kukushkin, a solvable task awaits the Franconian, who trains at the TennisBase Oberhaching. Kukushkin had already defeated the French wild card recipient Corentin Moutet in three sets on Monday.
Here the single tableau in Kitzbühel