US Open: Dream of brother duel shattered: Jürgen Melzer loses start of qualifying

The dream of the brother duel in New York has already come to an early end: 37-year-old Jürgen Melzer lost his opening match in the US Open qualifying round – so there can be no family match against Gerald Melzer on Friday in the second round. The nine year younger brother will play his first match against Darian King from Barbados on Wednesday.

At the beginning of the match against Kenny De Schepper (6:7, 2:6) everything looked quite promising for old champion Jürgen Melzer. The Viennese, who won the double title from New York together with German Philipp Petzschner in 2011, was leading 6:3 in the tie-break and had three set points. But the Frenchman struck back and turned his second set point a little later.

The previous three comparisons with 31-year-old De Schepper (ATP No. 209) had all been won by Melzer, currently number 540 in the ATP ranking. But also in the second round the left-hander gave up early – and ran in vain after the necessary break on court 4.

When Melzer lost his second serve for 2-5, the preliminary decision had long since been made. In 2010, Roger Federer (Switzerland) failed the former world ranking night only in the round of 16 of the US Open.

On Tuesday Dennis Novak and Sebastian Ofner had already reached the second qualifying round in the Big Apple. Lucas Miedler and Maximilian Neuchrist retired. No player from the ÖTV squad is in the field for the women.