Defending champion Peter Gojowczyk (Munich) has been eliminated in the round of 16 at the ATP tournament in Metz and will drop out of the top 50 of the world rankings again next Monday. The 29-year-old lost to top seeded Japanese Kei Nishikori (Japan) after 1:36 hours 6:7 (4:7), 3:6.
After a balanced first set Gojowczyk, the world’s number 45 before the tournament on the Mosel, gave his first service game to the US Open semi-finalists in the second round. Gojowczyk’s re-break was immediately followed by another loss of serve, which was the shortest in his first duel with the twelfth in the world rankings.
Also in the quarter-finals is Richard Gasquet in fourth place. The veteran defeated Constant Lestienne 6-4 and 6-2 in the purely French duel.
This means that only two Germans are now represented in the hall competition in eastern France, which is endowed with 561,345 euros: Lucky Loser Yannick Maden (Stuttgart) will meet the French Davis Cup player Benoit Paire in his round of 16 on Thursday (not before 2 pm), qualifier Matthias Bachinger (Munich) will have to deal with the third seeded local hero Lucas Pouille (not before 6 pm).
Here the single tableau in Metz