Maximilian Marterer retired in the round of 16 at the French Open 2018. As expected, the German Davis Cup player lost to ten-time champion Rafael Nadal in three sets after a courageous performance.
By Jens Huiber from Paris
Maximilian Marterer had to wait for his first match on the Center Court in Roland Garros for a whole and actually half a women’s match, as the schedule had provided. This could have taken longer, but Mrs Halep and Mrs Kasatkina were in a hurry, so the 22-year-old Franconian came to Court Philippe Chatrier shortly after 1 pm.
Torterer started courageously, but finally had to admit defeat to the big favourite 3:6, 2:6 and 6:7 (3). Especially in the third round, Torterer caused the defending champion a lot of problems.
The match started with Nadal’s loss of serve, Marterer defended his own serve, led 2-0, but had to give up the following five games, losing set one after 43 minutes with 3-6.
The German’s playing style is not dissimilar to that of the great master from Mallorca, but Nadal’s balls get much more spin on the, as a rule: rather short, journey. Marterer varied a little more at the beginning of the second movement, sprinkled a stop for instance. It has to fit perfectly against a man like Rafael Nadal, though. And despite his constant development, Maximilian Marterer is still a long way from perfection. Nadal won round two with 6:2, 81 minutes were played there.
Early in the morning, Marterer had a prominent observer at the biggest stadium of the complex: Thomas Högstedt, the caretaker of Maria Sharapova, watched the young German. Or familiarized himself with the conditions for his protégé on site. Sharapova, however, as it turned out in the course of Marterer’s match, did not have to play Serena Williams. The American withdrew shortly before the match because of an arm injury.
Marterer intervened with a sparring partner, Davis Cup boss Michael Kohlmann observed and intervened. In the match Kohlmann took on the role of motivator, well audible in the legendary stadium. Also because the players’ coach boxes are surprisingly far away from the court.
Nadal doesn’t need any additional motivation, especially in Paris. At the beginning of the third act, Marterer showed his best tennis, taking a 3-1 lead. In front of now full grandstands. Nadal seemed vulnerable in this phase, issued two warnings about the time play of chair referee Damien Dumusois. The audience liked the balanced match with the wave. In the tiebreak, Marterer offenisv continued, Nadal had to reach into the magic box several times. And after 2:30 hours, he made it into the last eight with his second match point.
In the quarter-finals on Wednesday, Rafael Nadal will meet Diego Schwartzman. The Argentinian caught up with Kevin Anderson 2-0. Schwartzman took the South African’s serve again, also in sets three and four, when Anderson served to the quarter-finals.
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