The six qualifiers at the 28. NOVENTI OPEN are set: Above all the Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili, who has already won the titles in Doha and Munich this year. The former top 20 player was able to overcome the German Yannick Hanfmann (29) in his qualifying finals. Yet Hanfmann had a chance to get the ticket to the main field himself. He only just lost the first set in a tie-break, and he kept up with his opponent in the second set, too. But, in the end, the score was 7:6(3), 6:4 for the favourite.
From a German perspective the qualifying thus ended a little disappointing, because not one of the players started was able to reach the main field at the largest grass tournament in Germany. Two, indeed, had had to retire due to injuries - Cedrik-Marcel Stebe and Yannick Maden.
Instead, apart from Basilashvili the US-American Marcos Giron, the Belarussian Ilya Ivashka and Ricardas Berankis from Lithuania have qualified. He had reached the third round at the French Open a couple of days ago, though then being defeated clearly by Novak Djokovic. The fifth ticket was grabbed by Slovene Lukas Lacko, an old friend at the grass event in Halle. He reached the quarter finals here in 2010, also playing twice in the round of 16. The last player who entered the main draw on Sunday was frenchman Arthur Rinderknech. His reward is a meeting with Stefanos Tsitsipas in the first round.
