Florian Mayer played his last ATP match on German soil in Hamburg. With the 34-year-old from Bayreuth, a unique tennis player leaves the big stage.
Two balls that could no longer be played due to a space error. In addition a forehand to the net band, which could have dripped down on the other side, that of Pablo Carreno Busta. And so Florian Mayer’s farewell performance in Hamburg would have been enriched with at least one encore.
But tournament director Michael Stich hurried seconds after the match to the Center Court of the Hamburg Rothenbaum and found farewell words for the Bayreuther, who had still been in the final at the German Open last year. Back then, as on Monday, Tobias Summerer, his coach of many years, who brought him back to the top of the world again and again after injuries.
And with whom Florian Mayer also celebrated the biggest triumph of his career, the title at the ATP World Tour 500 tournament in Halle/Westphalia in 2016, Bucharest, five years before, this was the second great success of the 34-year-old, an event in the 250cc category.
In the match against Carreno Busta, Mayer once again unpacked the whole range of his skills – at sea level, when he was a lot easier than at the heights of Munich or Kitzbühel. The tennis fans will probably miss the backhand, the countless stops, but above all the clever division of the court, which distinguished the long-time Davis Cup player.
If you can’t get rid of this, you have to visit the TC Großhesselohe. Florian Mayer has been playing in the second Bundesliga in the south of Munich for just over a year.
On the ATP tour, there were only two victories in the current campaign, typically both on grass: In Halle against Richard Gasquet, the week before in Stuttgart against Yannick Maden.
Florian Mayer will travel to New York to the US Open, where he will say goodbye to the great tennis. He was no longer prepared to work four to five hours a day on the training ground, Mayer recently explained in Hamburg.
There are actually no doubts about the actual end of the career. Or is it? Philipp Kohlschreiber, team mate in the German national team and like Mayer has been stationed more or less strongly at the TennisBase Oberhaching for years, at least thought aloud a few weeks ago during the ATP tournament in Munich about whether the passion for his sport Florian Mayer could still drift a little longer on the center courts of the world.
Because if he has fun and is healthy, Florian Mayer can still keep up with the world’s best. he showed that against Pablo Carreno Busta in Hamburg.
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