2024-01-04 09:19:06
Austria’s tennis professional Sebastian Ofner reached the quarterfinals of the $739,945 ATP hard court tournament in Hong Kong on Thursday. The world number 43. from Styria won against number five seeded German Jan-Lennard Struff in their first duel on the tour after a strong performance 6:7(4),7:6(5),7:6(2). Ofner will now play on Friday (2nd match after 6:00 a.m. CET) against the Spaniard Albert Bautista Agut for a place in the semi-finals.
Ofner managed an early break in the first set, Struff equalized to 2-2. The service went into a tiebreak, with Ofner missing two break points at 5:5. In the decision, Austria’s number one had to bow after quickly falling behind. In the second round, Ofner pushed to equalize the set, earned four set points, but Struff saved himself into the tiebreak. This time the German lost out due to a late mini-break against himself.
In the game, which ultimately lasted over 2:48 hours, Ofner carried his momentum into the third set and immediately grabbed his first return game. The 27-year-old confidently played his next three service games, but Struff managed to tie the score at 4:4 with his only break point after the first set. Ofner remained unimpressed and it went to a tiebreak again. The 33-year-old Struff was behind from the start, Ofner completed the task at high speed.
He extended his excellent start to the season after he achieved a 6:1, 6:2 win in the first round against the American Mackenzie McDonald. Against the well-known strong server Struff, Ofner himself impressed with 16 aces, two more than his opponent. His four double faults were matched by only one of Ofner’s. The ÖTV athlete was much more efficient at the net than Struff.
Ofner has also never played against 35-year-old Bautista Agut on the tour. The Iberian is ranked 57th in the world. 14 positions behind the red-white-red hope; he has not yet given up a set during the tournament. In any case, Ofner now has a good chance of being in the top 40 for the first time next Monday with his best ranking to date.
After the Ofner game, Alexander Erler/Lucas Miedler had to play their double quarter-finals. At the ATP tournament in Brisbane, Sam Weissborn and his Monegasque doubles partner Romain Arneodo had to defeat the number three seeded US pairing Nathaniel Lammons/Jackson Withrow (USA-3) 6:7(2),6:7(4) in the round of 16. bend.
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