FTennis veteran Philipp Kohlschreiber had no explanation for his chanceless appearance at the Australian Open. The 38-year-old had a really bad day in Melbourne this Thursday. With the 1: 6, 0: 6, 3: 6, the Augsburger experienced a violent second-round elimination and was the penultimate German tennis professional. “I really can’t explain it myself. I’m very rarely speechless,” the 38-year-old quarreled: “I can’t say what the problem was.”
Kohlschreiber had no chance. After only 1:28 hours of play, the former top 20 player, now number 134 in the world, had to congratulate the Spaniard Bautista Agut. 44 unforced errors by the oldest player left in the men’s field were far too many against the consistent Spaniard.
Eleven out of twelve Germans are out
“I can’t even be angry, angry, disappointed,” said Kohlschreiber: “It was bewitched through and through today. It couldn’t have been worse.” In the first round, the Augsburger had won in three sets against the Italian Marco Cecchinato 6: 4, 7: 5, 7: 6 (7: 0) – two days later nothing came together. “Personally, I’d say it was probably the most inexplicable feeling on the pitch I’ve seen to date,” he said. He could only take this defeat with “gallows humor”, he said and reported: “My coach said: ‘He’s going to eat a burger first’.”
From the initially twelve German tennis professionals – nine men and three women – only Zverev is represented in the field of the first Grand Slam tournament of the season. The third in the world rankings from Hamburg meets Radu Albot from Moldova as the clear favorite on Friday. In Australia, the 24-year-old is aiming for his first Grand Slam title.
After all, there was a German success in doubles. The Davis Cup players Jan-Lennard Struff and Dominik Koepfer prevailed 6: 3, 6: 3 against the Serbs Filip Krajinovic and Matej Sabanov. In singles, Struff had already finished in round one, and Koepfer in round two. In the women’s category, neither Angelique Kerber nor Andrea Petkovic nor Tatjana Maria survived their first-round task.
The women’s competition experienced a surprise on Thursday with the second round elimination of the Spanish world number three Garbiñe Muguruza. The 28-year-old world-class tennis player surprisingly lost against unseeded French player Alizé Cornet 3:6, 3:6. Former Wimbledon and French Open winner Muguruza was in the final of the Australian Open two years ago.
Another top ten player eliminated in the second round was Estonian Anett Kontaveit. The seventh in the world rankings lost to the 19-year-old Danish Clara Tauson 2: 6, 4: 6.
