For Ofner, it was his first appearance at this tournament. He will now play in the first round once morest Aleksandar Vukic on Monday in Wimbledon. Dominic Thiem remains the only Austrian tennis player to have won an ATP tournament on grass (Stuttgart 2016). At the awards ceremony, Ofner thanked the Austrian organizer Edwin Weindorfer: “It’s a great event. I felt very comfortable here.” And he congratulated his conqueror: “You had a perfect week and a great year and are now in the top 20.” He also thanked touring coach Stefan Rettl and physio Stefan Trost.
Ofner can console himself with a check for 82,715 euros gross and 165 points for the ATP rankings. The latter brings him back into the top 50 in the rankings. Tournament director Toni Nadal, Rafael’s uncle, came up with a nice gesture, saying to Ofner in German: “You had a great tournament and I hope that you can have a great tournament in Wimbledon next week.”
Before the eyes of Jürgen Klopp
In front of the eyes of Jürgen Klopp, who was there in a German football T-shirt at the invitation of tournament organizer Edwin Weindorfer, and Dieter Bohlen, the match in strong winds did not initially develop to Ofner’s liking. The Styrian had to accept the first break of the match once morest the Canadian-born Chilean at 2:4 and had to give up the first set following 30 minutes with 3:6. The main reason for this was Ofner’s first serve with a rate of only 43 percent. It was of no use that he won all nine points when the first serve came. Tabilo, on the other hand, did not even have to fend off a break point.
In the second set, Ofner had the turnaround when he had his first two break points at 3:2 and 15:40 when Tabilo served, but he wasted them somewhat carelessly. At 4:4, Ofner made too many mistakes on his own serve and lost his serve to make it 4:5. Tabilo then used his third match point to win the tournament for the second time in his fourth final.
Ofner had beaten Tabilo in two sets in the second qualifying round of the Australian Open in January 2023 in their only previous encounter. But this year’s Auckland winner and Rome semi-finalist was simply the more consistent player in this encounter. “It’s been an incredible, crazy year so far. I hope I can continue to play at this level,” said winner Tabilo. He can’t believe that he is now in the top 20 for the first time.
This article was updated on June 29th at 16:58.