“I’m very happy, especially here in Kitzbühel at home in front of such an audience. It’s incredible to play here,” said Misolic, who has Croatian parents. He was already looking forward to his debut early in the morning. “It was the best feeling of my career,” he said of his impressions when he walked onto Kitzbühel’s Center Court.
Misolic – right-handed – started playing tennis at the age of six. “I got a tennis racket for my birthday and I haven’t let it out of my hand.” Misolic trains in Croatia with Ante Andric, but also repeatedly in Südstadt with ÖTV sports director Jürgen Melzer, who cannot be described as Misolic’s coach is.
“I have to improve everything, but the backhand is pretty good. I also served very well today,” said Misolic, whose role models used to be Andy Murray and then Dominic Thiem. He also had set balls against him in Salzburg a few weeks ago, before Thiem celebrated his first win since his comeback.
Top 150 as next target
The top 200 have already been reached. He has to set new goals quickly: “The next goal is to get into the top 150 as quickly as possible.” He quickly made the transition from Future to Challenger level, and then the first Challenger title followed in May in Zagreb. “I switched from Future to Challenger pretty quickly, it wasn’t easy at first. Recently I’ve managed to win a Challenger title, so it’s much easier in terms of self-confidence.”
At the beginning of the match, Misolic seemed a bit nervous, but that quickly subsided and only came back at the end. In the first set, the man from Graz took the serve twice from his competitor. The second round was more balanced. After an early break to make it 2-1, Misolic was already leading 6-2 5-3. “I was dominant the whole match, but the hardest part is closing the match. There were a lot of thoughts in my head,” Misolic admitted. In the tiebreak he was already 2:5 behind, but turned it around and saved himself a third set at temperatures of around 33 degrees. After 1:53 hours, Misolic used his second match point.
Rodionov in the round of 16 for the first time
After Misolic, Jurij Rodionov also reached the round of 16. The 23-year-old from Lower Austria won 6: 4 6: 2 against the Argentine qualifier Hernan Casanova on his ATP Tour debut after 81 minutes.
After his third attempt, Rodionov is in the round of 16 for the first time in the Gamsstadt. He had previously failed in 2018 and 2019 at the start of Dennis Novak. In the fight for the quarter-finals on Wednesday he will meet number 3 seeded Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP). Rodionov is currently number 145 in the ATP ranking in Austria. The other three ÖTV players in the main competition are all in action on Tuesday.
