Qualifier Oscar Otte missed a surprise at the 250cc tournament in Stockholm and was eliminated despite a strong performance in the last sixteen.
After almost 2:13 hours Australian Open quarter-finalist Tennys Sandgren (USA) turned his second match point into a hard-fought 7:6 (7:4), 3:6, 6:3 against the world rankings-193rd Otte. The Cologne player, who won 13 aces, had won his first game ever in the main draw of an ATP event the day before.
The 25-year-old had defeated the Estonian Jürgen Zopp, as he had already done in the qualification, who nevertheless slipped into the main draw as Lucky Loser.
Otte also showed a strong performance against Sandgren. When he managed the first break to 6:5 in the eleventh game of the opening round, the underdog, who plays mainly on the lower-class Challenger Tour, won the set.
But in these situations much is also a matter of experience – and nerves. Otte lost his next service game to zero. What it meant was compensation instead of a gain.
In the following tiebreak, the 1.96 m slag fell 1:3 behind, but was able to equal the score 4:4. But after an unsuccessful challenge he had to face two set balls. With his fourth double mistake, Otte finished the run and could not reward himself against the world rankings-62. Sandgren first of all not rewarded.
However, the German number 13 did not get off the ground despite the setback. After Otte could take over the service from the US American from Gallatin/Tennessee for the second time, he quickly extended his lead to 4:1. Otte did not let his lead be taken away on the Centre Court of the “Royal Tennis Hall” (Kungliga Tennishallen).
The preliminary decision in set three was made when Sandgren managed his second break to 4:2 (with break point number seven). Otte braced himself against the defeat and had in the following service game from Sandgren still twice the chance to wear out the gap. He didn’t succeed, though. Nevertheless, the 25-year-old can be as proud as Bolle of his performance in Stockholm.
After the short-term cancellation of Peter Gojowczyk (Munich), the opening defeat of Maximilian Marterer (Nuremberg) and the last sixteen from Otte, Philipp Kohlschreiber is the last remaining German in the tableau. On Thursday afternoon, the Augsburg native will meet Fernando Verdasco of Spain in eighth place in the Swedish capital.