The Qualifying at the 25th GERRY WEBER OPEN has delivered its first big surprise. Maximilian Marterer (TK Kurhaus Aachen) won against the No.2 seed Denis Istomin (Uzbekistan) 7:6(5), 7:6(3) in the first round. The youngster kept his cool in the crucial moments of the match and played sensational tennis. No nerves showing, the Bundesliga-player from Aachen won both rounds in tie-breaks.
Now Maximilian Marterer needs to win on Sunday to get to the main field at the GERRY WEBER OPEN. His opponent will then be Alexander Bublik (Kasachstan), who also won his first match quite surprisingly. The Kazakh beat No. 5 seed Andrey Kuznetsov (Russia) 2:6, 6:4, 6:4.
No surprises though when Lukas Lacko (Slovakia), odds-on favourite and no. 8 on the list, won his match easily 6:4, 6:3 against Ruben Bemelmans (Belgium). Now the Slovak will meet the Italian player Andreas Seppi. The GERRY WEBER OPEN finalist of 2015 beat the local promising hope Daniel Masur (Tennispark Versmold) 6:3, 6:3.
Tomorrow will see a breath-taking final in the Qualifying when top-seeded Japanese player Yuichi Sugita clashes against Mikhail Youzhny (Russia), who had reached the finals once at GERRY WEBER OPEN in 2013. Both won their first-round matches in straight sets against Yannick Hanfmann (TC Weinheim 1902) and respectively Benjamin Becker (TC Weinheim 1902). The forth qualifying match will be between Ernesto Escobedo (USA) and Vasek Pospisil (Canada).
