Maximilian Marterer celebrated his fifth ATP-Challenger title at the Bauer Watertechnology Cup, which is endowed with 43,000 euros. The local hero from Nuremberg defeated Jerzy Janowicz from Poland 7:6,3:6,6:3,6:3 before sold-out places in the House of Sports in Eckental.

Maximilian Marterer was visibly relaxed before the final. The 22-year-old sat relaxed in a dark tracksuit, his arms crossed behind his head, in the corner of the Center Courts and examined the current double final. There was always time for a little chat with the tournament organizers, ball children and other helpers of the event. One could sense that this tournament was something special for the Nuremberg native. He seemed to feel really at home.

He transferred this ease to the pitch at the beginning of the final. After 53 minutes and two defended set points, Marterer won the first round.

However, when Janowicz was more aggressive on the second serve of the German, he was shaken for the first time. The 26-year-old Pole broke through Marterer’s service in the second game of the second set and the left-handed player threw his racket on the carpet. When Janowicz then left the set behind, the match was in the balance. The strenuous week with two long three-set matches at the beginning of the tournament seemed to take its toll.

Marterer was also trailing with a break in the third set, but he caught himself back again, stabilized the quota of his first serve and pulled the momentum back to his side. Janowicz also did his job by putting his baseline strokes in the end one after the other. In the sixth game, the time had come. The world rankings 106. managed the decisive break and turned his first match point after just under two hours of play.

“In the middle of the second movement it became really hard and I also ran out of air a little bit. It was a long week and my thigh caused me a bit of trouble,”said Marterer afterwards, explaining the reasons for his small sag.

“Jerzy didn’t serve so well at the end of the day, though, and that’s also played a little bit in my cards. The great support of the spectators here has also helped me immensely to keep my head down.”

Marterer won his fifth ATP-Challenger title, his first on domestic ground. Eckental is only 20 kilometres northeast of his birthplace Nuremberg.

“It’s an incredible relief for me to go home with the trophy now. I’ve been pretty tense over the week. My goal was to make it into the Australian Open main field and I knew I had to play well here. The tournament was busy and I just watched from round to round. It was a pleasure playing here.”

On Monday, Marterer will be in 90th place in the ATP World Ranking, a new personal career high.

“It’s important to make the transition now. I have now proven that I can survive at Challenger level. Now it’s time to put this into practice at the ATP tournaments,”says Marterer, who started the year 2017 in 177th place.

The next step will be the season’s end at the French Mouilleron-Le-Captif, before we start our well-deserved holiday after a long season “I don’t know where that will be. Maybe I’ll go to South Tyrol for a few days,”said the satisfied local hero.

Before the showdown in the singles, Sander Arends and Roman Jebavy won their first team title in the first attempt. Ken and Neal Skupski from Great Britain defeated the Dutch-Czech combination in the double final 6:2,6:4.

“It was fantastic playing here. The whole team in Eckental, the atmosphere and of course being on the pitch with Roman was a lot of fun,”Arends said after the 55-minute performance. The 26-year-old won his third ATP-Challenger double title within only four weeks and will finish the season in Slovakia’s capital Bratislava next week with Jebavy.