The second edition of the Hamburg Ladies & Gents Cup begins on Sunday and the fields of the Combined Event, which are already top-ranked, are becoming even more attractive after the wildcards have been announced. Oscar Otte makes his comeback.
by PM/tennisnet
last edited: October 13, 2023, 4:58 p.m
© Axel Heimken
Oscar Otte
At the men’s ATP Challenger Tour tournament, three other German players will take part in the main field: Oscar Otte (Cologne/ATP 212), Rudolf Molleker (Oranienburg/ATP 219) and Marvin Möller (Hamburg/ATP 373).
Otte injured his knee at the Wimbledon grass classic in July, had to undergo surgery and has not been able to take part in any tournaments since. The 30-year-old Rhinelander had already had an arthroscopy on the medial meniscus a year ago. Due to these injury problems, Otte slipped to 212th in the world rankings. In June 2022 he was ranked 36th. The tournament in Hamburg marks the beginning of the comeback for the German Davis Cup player, who has already achieved five successes on the ATP Challenger Tour.
Molleker, whose star rose at Rothenbaum in 2017 when he fought his way through qualification into his first ATP main draw as a 16-year-old, will try to continue his successful season so far in the Hanseatic city. The native Ukrainian celebrated his second Challenger tournament victory at the tournament in Prague, Czech Republic in August.
Local hero Möller, who trains with the Hamburg Tennis Association, is already full of enthusiasm. “I am of course very happy to be able to start directly in the main field in Hamburg. “It is always something special and nice to play a tournament, especially in the hall, where I have previously spent an incredible number of hours,” says Möller.
“I want to maintain my good form from the last few weeks and continue to play good and aggressive tennis. We’ll see what the result will be afterwards.”
Louis Wessels (Bielefeld/ATP 333), Tom Gentzsch (Duisburg/ATP 721), John Sperle (Pulheim/ATP 959) and Noel Larwig (Kiel) will take part in the qualification. Jakob Schnaitter and Mark Wallner received a wildcard for the doubles main field.
Young hopeful Stusek is starting again in Hamburg
At the women’s ITF World Tennis Tour W60 tournament there will be a reunion with top German talent Julia Stusek (Mannheim/WTA 749). The 15-year-old already competed at the Hamburg Ladies & Gents Cup last year, successfully fought her way through qualification and was able to record her first success in a main draw on the pro circuit with a two-set win over the Romanian Arina Gabriela Vasilescu before she narrowly failed in three sets to Ella Seidel in the second round.
Ana Gabric (Kirchheim unter Teck/WTA 485), Tessa Brockmann (Kaltenkirchen) and Eliessa Vanlangendonck (Belgium/WTA 629) complete the wild card quartet.Carolin Raschdorf (Essen/
WTA 1108), Mariella Thamm (Mannheim), Karla Bartel (Leverkusen) and Phillippa Preugschat (Hamburg) will start in the qualification. Tessa Brockmann and Eliessa Vanlangendonck also receive a wildcard for the doubles competition.
Top tennis at “free rate”
The Hamburg Ladies & Gents Cup is a “combined event” that is unique in Germany and includes an ATP Challenger in category 50 for men (prize money: 36,000 euros) as well as an ITF World Tour W60 event for women The prize is worth 60,000 US dollars (the equivalent of around 57,000 euros).
Entry is free on all tournament days. The venue is the HTV association hall (Bei den Tennisplatz 77, 22119 Hamburg).
2023-10-13 14:58:00
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