Zhizhen Zhang has reached the last sixteen of the 31st TERRA WORTMANN OPEN in his main draw debut in Halle. The Chinese player had to work hard for almost two and a half hours to defeat Austrian Sebastian Ofner 7:6, 6:7 and 6:4. For a long time it looked like a match without a break, with the two opponents hitting aces at each other. Zhang ended up with 23, Ofner with 21, but after two close tiebreak decisions for one player each, the Chinese player, who is ranked 42nd in the world, managed to break in the fifth game of the third set, which would lead him to victory. He confidently won his service games and used his second match point to reach the round of 16.
"I'm very happy to have won a match in Halle. And then also on the Centre Court, a place with a lot of history," said a delighted Zhang, who was defeated by Detmold's Louis Wessels in qualifying on his first visit to Halle last year. Compared to his weak performance twelve months ago, Zhang was almost unrecognizable against Ofner.
Lorenzo Sonego is also through to the last 16. The 29-year-old Italian, ranked 57th in the world, defeated the 24-year-old Serb Miomir Kecmanovic (ATP 54) by the narrowest of margins, 7:6 and 7:6. In this match between two strong servers, there were no breaks and only three break points in total. And the tiebreaks were also very close. Sonego, who will now play the winner of the German duel between Oscar Otte and Alexander Zverev, won the deciding games 8:6 and 7:5.
Fabian Marozsan (ATP 45) from Hungary has booked his ticket for the round of 16. He beat Roman Safiullin 7:5, 4:6 and 6:1 in round one. The winner of the match between world number one Jannik Sinner and Tallon Griekspoor now awaits the 24-year-old from Budapest.
