Daniel Altmaier makes it exciting after a two-set lead and can only breathe a sigh of relief after midnight. Maximilian Marterer has much less trouble against an Australian.
Tennis player Daniel Altmaier has made it into the second round in a marathon match at the start of the French Open shortly before 1 a.m. The 25-year-old from Kempen was able to celebrate a hard-fought opening victory after 5:04 hours of play and a 7:5, 6:4, 6:7 (6:8), 5:7, 7:6 (10:6) against the Serbian Laslo Djere.
Before Altmaier, Maximilian Marterer was the first German tennis professional to reach the next round. The 28-year-old won surprisingly clearly against Australian Jordan Thompson on Sunday with 6:3, 6:2, 6:0. Marterer thus overcame the opening hurdle at a Grand Slam tournament on clay for the first time since 2018. In the second round he will face Belgian qualifier Zizou Bergs.
“I was a bit nervous at first, but I got better and better,” said Marterer. Even a long rain break when the score was 2-0 in the third set didn’t throw the Nuremberg player off his game: “I tried not to calm down, but to keep the tension up so that I would be right back when it started.”
Debutante Lys narrowly missed a big surprise
In the women’s competition, however, no German player was able to win on Sunday. Debutant Eva Lys narrowly missed a big surprise. The 22-year-old had to admit defeat to the number 21 seeded Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia on Court Philippe Chatrier after a strong performance with 6:4, 5:7, 2:6.
Garcia will face Sofia Kenin in the second round. The former Australian Open winner from the USA beat Laura Siegemund from Metzingen 4:6, 6:2, 6:2. Jule Niemeier from Dortmund (6:0, 2:6, 4:6 against the Chinese Xinyu Wang) and Tatjana Maria from Bad Saulgau (2:6, 3:6 against the Danish Clara Tauson) also suffered first-round defeats.
In her first appearance in the largest stadium of Roland Garros against local hero Garcia, Lys showed no signs of nervousness. The world number 143, who had reached the main draw of the French Open for the first time via qualifying, played courageously and initially benefited from numerous mistakes by her opponent, who was rated much higher. But in the end, Garcia’s greater class prevailed.
Lys had publicly revealed that she had a rheumatic autoimmune disease at the beginning of March; she had been diagnosed with spondyloarthritis in 2020. “This is a physical challenge that I have to face every day in addition to the physical exertion,” she explained.
Source: Stern
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