He lost the first set, then fully turned up, acted cleverly and then won deservedly; Oscar Otte can get through an exciting match against Nikoloz Basilashivili 4:6, 6:0, 7:6(3) and thus reaches the round of the last eight in his first participation at the TERRA WORTMANN OPEN.
Even though the two players are nearly the same age, their performance was totally different on the Centre Court at Halle. On the one side the 30-year-old Nikoloz Basilashvili, on the other side Oscar Otte, 28 years old – stoic calm against constant alarm: two totally different players in character met in this round-of-16 match. The Georgian player found into his match straight away, got an early break and didn’t give up the lead in the first set, even though he had to fend off two of Oscar Otte’s break points at a score of 5:4. This meant 6:4 after 37 minutes.
Despite losing the set Oscar Otte played better. The 28-year-old acted braver, forced his opponent to fault more. Furthermore, he served more powerfully and with his increasing performance the audience in Halle loudly cheered on the only German player left in the field. The quality of the rallies increased, but now it was Oscar Otte to get an early break. Nikolz Basilashivili had lost his rhythm. This meant the score was 6:0 for Oscar Otte after only 28 further minutes – third set.
Both players showed enthusing rallies. Neither gave a ball up. Break chances were rare and if there was one, points were won by the serving player. The logical consequence, really, was that the decider on victory or defeat would be faught in the tiebreak. Oscar Otte pushed himself and the spectators. There was a great atmosphere at the “Oscar-Otte-festival” in Halle. The second match point was there.
“The audience pulled me through after losing the set. I really can’t believe it. I’m going to first enjoy the victory“, Oscar Otte, who will meet Karen Khachanov in the quarterfinals said happily.
