Oscar Otte is back

Oscar Otte has reached the main draw of the 31st TERRA WORTMANN OPEN. The 2022 semi-finalist and Hall crowd favourite defeated Frenchman Constant Lestienne 7:6 and 6:1 in the qualifying final. Otte's success against Lestienne, who had luckily beaten Detmold's Louis Wessels in the first round of qualifying, was mainly down to his good service. The man from Cologne hit 15 aces and scored a point on 87 percent of his first serves (39 out of 45). Otte, who has been struggling with knee problems since 2022 and had to undergo several operations, did not concede a break and fended off six chances from Lestienne. On the other side, Otte used two break points in set two to win 6:1. Otte, who has slipped to 471st in the world rankings, is back and can now show himself in the main draw in Halle. But the task will be very difficult. The 30-year-old will play against the German number one and number two in the tournament, Alexander Zverev. From a German perspective, it's a real hammer blow.

Yannick Hanfmann and grass - it's not an intimate love affair. But his record is not quite so bad. Seven match wins on grass are offset by eight defeats on the ATP Tour. At the 31st TERRA WORTMANN OPEN, however, he won't be able to improve on that. In the qualifying final, the 32-year-old, who is ranked 91st in the world, lost 3:6 and 2:6 to the American Alex Michelsen (ATP 61).

Hanfmann weakened at the beginning of each set on his own serve. In the first set, he was quickly trailing 0:2. Although the man from Karlsruhe then managed his service confidently, he didn't even come close to a break point on Michelsen's serve. The 6:3 win for the American was the logical consequence. Set two was similar. Hanfmann conceded a break in the very first game. Michelsen continued to serve strongly, the German didn't return particularly well either. Hanfmann dropped serve to make it 2:5, but the 19-year-old from California then easily took the match, which lasted just 58 minutes and ended virtually at the start of a rain shower.

Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut, who has already reached the semi-finals in Halle twice (2018 and last year) and the quarter-finals three times (2017, 2019 and 2022), failed to qualify this year. The 36-year-old lost 4:6, 4:6 to Australian Max Purcell in the qualifying final.

Australian James Duckworth took fourth place in the main draw on Sunday. He defeated Frenchman Corentin Moutet 6:1, 7:6 in the last qualifying final.