In a dramatic encounter Mikhail Youzhny (Russia), GERRY WEBER OPEN-finalist in 2013, won his qualifying match against the top-seed Yuichi Sugita and has thus qualified for the main draw. It was the second-longest match in the history of the GERRY WEBER OPEN. Only Cedric-Marcel Stebe and Leonardo Mayer (Argentina) had played even longer in a qualifying-final on the lawn in Halle 2011. The German won 6:7(6), 7:5, 7:6(4), back then.
Before that, Maximilian Marterer (TK Kurhaus Aaachen), was the only German to have reached the main draw. He had a good day playing Alexander Bublik (Kazakhstan), who didn't stand a chance against the strong German. Marterer was alert from the start and dominated the match. Bublik didn't win one game in the first set. After only 17 minutes the Bundesliga-player from Aachen had won the first set 6:0. The audience at the GERRY WEBER OPEN on the packed Court 1 tried to encourage Bublik through their applause. This motivation from the crowds showed, the Kazakh started with a break into the second set and was leading 2:0. Marterer, though, kept his calm, carried on showing a strong performance and took his chance to break 3:3. It then went quickly, the 23 year-old wanted to end the match in the scorching midday-sun fast. The German didn't give Bublik any more chances. He won his service and got another break to make the score 5:3. After 48 minutes this meant a 6:0, 6:3 - success for Marterer.
Lukas Lacko (Slovakia), has also been successful in the Qualifying. He beat Andreas Seppi (Italia) 6:4, 7:5, GERRY WEBER OPEN-finalist of 2015. Last but not least, Vasek Pospisil (Canada) reached the main draw. Pospisil was leading 4:2, when his opponant, Ernesto Escobedo (USA) had to give up due to injury. Escobedo had fallen and injured himself badly in the first set. After being treated he was brought into hospital for further examinations.
