ATP Challenger: Home advantage to the title

The German Yannick Hanfmann has secured the first ATP-Challenger title after a strong tournament week. In Ismaning he defeated Lorenzo Sonego in three sets in the final.

Yannick Hanfmann is the winner of the first edition of the WOLFFKRAN Open. At the €43,000 ATP-Challenger tournament in Ismaning, the 25-year-old German defeated Lorenzo Sonego from Italy in an exciting final 6-4,3-6,7-5. Tim Pütz and Dustin Brown lost in the double final.

Hanfmann, who had lost his only Challenger level final to Ricardas Berankis in Shymkent to date, started well and managed an early break in the second game of the first set. The native Karlsruher served the opening set after 33 minutes with 89% points over the second serve.

Sonego became more and more aggressive with his returns and tried to build up more and more pressure, especially via the second service of the German. The Italian, whose stature seemed a little lean, put all his power into his second leg and finally reaped his first break point, but Hanfmann remained stable and showed a good eye when a passing ball of Sonego’s only sailed to the end with a razor-sharp edge. A few minutes later, the 22-year-old Italian managed to break his way to the 2-0 lead. The German regained his break, but again lost his serve in the eighth game and Sonego served out to send the match into the decisive third set.

With the audience at your back for the final fight

More and more often the fist of the man from Turin could be seen after winning points, who also took the lead in the third game of the last set with a break. After that, the air seemed to be a bit out of the air for the Germans, but it was precisely in this phase that the first serve of Hanfmann found his destination more often and he managed the re-break in the eighth game. With the support of the 400 spectators in the tennis hall of the Sportpark Ismaning and under the eyes of the Davis Cup captain Michael Kohlmann, the protégé of TennisBase Oberhaching catapulted himself back into the track of success and finally used his fourth match ball after just under two hours of playing time.

“For a long time I’ve looked like the certain loser, but in the end the spectators really whipped me here and I was able to fight my way back into the match”, Hanfmann was visibly happy after his premiere triumph.

Victories over Marek Jaloviec, Jeremy Jahn, Tristan Lamasine and Dustin Brown brought him to the final. €6,190 prize money and 80 ATP ranking points will go to Hanfmann from Ismaning. The latter will ensure that the former college player reaches a personal high on Monday at position 114 of the world rankings.

At the end of the season Hanfmann will serve at the ATP-Challenger in Brest (France) as well as in the Franconian Eckental.

Brown/Pütz lose double final

For Dustin Brown and Tim Pütz it wasn’t enough to score a double win in the end. The German combination was defeated by the Croatian brothers Marin and Tomislav Draganja 6-7,6-2,10-8. The final ended after one hour and 28 minutes.

“It’s hard to tell what made the difference in the end, because the surface is very fast here. But it’s an advantage if you’re a well-practiced team,”said Marin Draganja, adding:”That’s why it’s the plan to play together later in the year and beyond”.