2023-12-04 01:21:31
Nevertheless, Austria’s current number four ended the season among the top 150 in the world.
With three pleasing match wins, Filip Misolic reached the semi-finals of an ATP Challenger for the third time this year at the end of the season at the eó Hotels Maspalomas Challenger. With the third finals appearance on Saturday followingnoon, however, nothing came of it. The third-ranked Styrian (ATP 158) lost to top-seeded local hero Pedro Martínez Portero (ATP 117) 6:3, 3:6 in the ATP 75 clay court challenger in the holiday resort of Maspalomas in the south of the island of Gran Canaria following a 2:30-hour fight , 4:6. The Spaniard, who was already number 40 in the world last year, ultimately won the tournament on Sunday. The double national champion Lukas Neumayer, however, was eliminated in the first main round. The Salzburg player (ATP 229) only took part in the event alongside his ongoing preparation for 2024.
Although Misolic won the first round following being 1:3 behind by playing six games in a row across all sets, he was unable to use five game balls to make it 2:0 in the second period and found himself at 1:5 in the third set. The comeback came too late, Martínez Portero served out at the second attempt. Nevertheless, Misolic can look back on an excellent season finish. At the ATP 250 tournament in Stockholm he reached the round of 16 as a qualifier with his best career win to date, also qualified at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna (ATP 500) and then qualified for the Austrian championship for the first time on November 19th at the Sportaktivpark Bad Waltersdorf Hall champions crowned. Thanks to the victories on the Canary Islands, the man from Graz improved to 146th place in the world rankings and ended the year among the best 150 in the world.
Oswald in Maia with an unfortunate semi-final defeat
Philipp Oswald was also in action once more in the last ATP Challenger tournament week of the year – at the Maia Open in Portugal, an ATP 100 Challenger on clay indoors. The Vorarlberger teamed up with the Romanian Victor Vlad Cornea with a 6:2, 2:6, 10:5 once morest the Dutch Mats Hermans and Ryan Nijboer and a 6:1, 6:2 once morest Khumoyun Sultanov (Uzbekistan) and Volodymyr Uzhylovskyi ( Ukraine) made it to the semi-finals of the doubles competition. There, however, luck was not on the side of the number three duo: Cornea/Oswald lost to Fernando Romboli (Brazil) and Szymon Walkow (Poland) following a total of six missed match points with 6:3, 6:7 (11) and 10 :12 in the match tiebreak. On one of the match points, the net tape came to Romboli/Walkow’s aid in the form of a direct point win. Nevertheless, Oswald wintered in the top 100 of the double world rankings for the eleventh time in a row with a precise landing.
At the Yokkaichi Challenger, Jurij Rodionov made one last attempt during a three-week tour of Japan to collect the crucial ATP points for a main draw place at the Australian Open 2024. However, the venture was not crowned with success: the second-seeded Lower Austrian (ATP 111) lost in the first round of the ATP 100 Hard Court Challenger in Yokkaichi to the Japanese local hero Rei Sakamoto (ATP 1183) 4:6, 4: 6. The 17-year-old is currently number 18 in the youth world rankings and was recently narrowly eliminated in the semifinals of the Osaka Mayor’s Cup once morest ÖTV’s young hope Joel Schwärzler. Rodionov will probably have to make his way into qualification at the Grand Slam tournament in Melbourne.
1701659110
#Misolic #misses #final
