It actually ended at 3:37 p.m. Maximilian Marterer had driven his opponent to the far corner of the court, was standing in front of the net, and only had to volley the ball, but the stop was too short and remained in the net: 4:5, minibreak in the tiebreak of the second set, only the second in the entire match. The first was enough for Antoine Bellier to win the set in the first round. Now two more cannon serves and the Swiss would secure the second Challenger title of his career.
But things turned out differently. Bellier galloped into a cracking return from Marterer, received another passing shot, it was called set ball Marterer, and a serve later “Game & second set Marterer”. Decision postponed. It came 55 minutes later, in the tiebreak of course, how else? One last pass down the line and the 7:6, 6:7, 7:6 winner of the Challenger tournament Wolffkran Open was Antoine Bellier.
The 27-year-old Schlaks from Geneva, who arrived at the start of the tournament as number 326 in the world rankings, fought his way through the qualification, in the main draw against the Frenchman Harold Mayot, the Cologne native Oscar Otte, his compatriot Marc-Andrea Hüsler, in the semi-finals Rudi Molleker and in the final After two and a half hours, he also defeated the Franconian Marterer, with cracking serves and a brilliant volley game, which was rewarded with 9,880 euros in prize money and 75 world ranking points. Now all he has to do is watch as he gets this huge salad bowl home from a winner’s trophy.
The defeated marterer then had to struggle with composure on the microphone as he thanked the organizer for the many free tickets for his fans and looked back once again on his rocky path back into the top 100: “I could do that I couldn’t imagine a more beautiful place than here in Bavaria.”
Sold out five times and a record number of spectators – the autumn holidays came in handy for the organizer
Tournament director Christoph Poehlmann also had to get a little sentimental at the end and remembered coram publico the first tournament in which he saw Marterer as tournament director: “That was in Bayreuth in 2007, a U14 tournament. Needless to say, Maxi and the winner is.” The man from Nuremberg now moves on to the ATP tournament in Sofia, which has stepped in as the organizer for Tel Aviv. Thanks to his recent jump in the rankings, Marterer has landed directly in the main draw, and his chances in the main draw for the next major event, the Australian Open in January, are now very good.
In Ismaning, with its cozy and friendly atmosphere, where there is applause even when the ball children change, people are very happy with the tournament week: sold out five times, a new attendance record with around 2,500 fans – the postponement of the tournament to the autumn holidays has helped them played nicely into the cards. On another level, however, you have to start looking: title sponsor Wolffkran is leaving after seven years, so organizer Peter Aurnhammer immediately started canvassing at the award ceremony: “If anyone knows someone who would like to get involved…”
