Maximilian Marterer, seated in sixth place, has stormed into the quarter-finals of the ATP sand court tournament in Kitzbühel. The left-hander from Nuremberg only needed 74 minutes to play Mikhail Kukushkin (Kazakhstan) 6-3, 6-4. In the round of the last eight, Marterer will either meet his Davis Cup colleague Philipp Kohlschreiber (Augsburg/No. 2) or the Qaulifikanten Denis Istomin from Uzbekistan.
At the Australian Open, Maxi Marterer, currently number 47 in the ATP ranking, was still smiled at. Not because of his playing, of course not. Down Under was the first time the likeable Franconian played his way into the third round of a Grand Slam tournament.
But people simply did not want to believe that Torterer is a football fan of TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. Not from Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund or 1st FC Nuremberg – the Kraichgauers own the love of the tennis pro.
Nowadays, this is usually no longer an issue at press conferences. Why not: Hoffenheim will be playing in the Champions League this coming season. So stupid sayings about Marterer’s taste in football are inappropriate. And besides, there are plenty of other interesting things to talk to torturers.
On Wednesday he reached a quarter-finals at an ATP tournament at the Generali Open in Kitzbühel for the third time this season. As usual, Torterer acted dominant from the baseline and was extremely effective against the world rankings-87. The French Open Round of 16 finalist made use of his first break point at 4-2 on the Centre Court, where conditions were again very sweaty, and after 30 minutes the favourite won the first round.
Afterwards the protégé of Davis Cup team boss Michael Kohlmann remained in the lead. Maxi” also used his second chance to take over the service from Kukushkin – and immediately followed up with his own serve to 4:2. Torturer could no longer take the lead. At first he missed two match points at 5:3 – but shortly afterwards the 23-year-old number three turned.
Jan-Lennard Struff (Warstein/No. 7), like Yannick Hanfmann from Karlsruhe, had already retired in the first round of the 561,345 Euro event in the elegant Austrian town.