"It is always gigantic, playing here again", Florian Mayer stated after he had defeated the no. six seed Lucas Pouille 6:7(6), 6:4, 6:3. With that last years GERRY WEBER OPEN-winner has reached the Quarterfinals of the anniversary tournament. You have to always take the German into account at Halle: "I love the lawn in Halle."
You could tell he loves serving here by seeing his domination in service. He didn't give one point away in his first four service games - frustrating for Lucas Pouille, indeed because he had to put up with an early break to make it 1:2. But then followed a short phase of weakness by Florian Mayer, which was used by the Frenchman without mercy. He got a re-break and it went into a tiebreak. The German had already fended off two set points, at a score of 6:7 he was confronted with the third set point of his opponants', then he foot-faulted, which made him lose his path slightly. After 43 minutes Pouille had won the first set.
"I pushed that aside quickly and concentrated further", Mayer said, who indeed wasn't much bothered by losing the set and who stayed focussed. Both players serviced well in the second set. Only at the score of 5:4 for the German there was a first loss of serve, which meant Florian Mayer winning the set 6:4. Pouille couldn't handle that all that well, had to take another break at the beginning of the third round, so that Florian Mayer only had to get his service through until the end of the match. And this he did. After 106 minutes it was done: The titleholder is in the round of eight. There he will meet the winner of the match between Roger Federer and Mischa Zverev.
