ECKENTAL, November 4, 2021
Following last week’s Wolffkran Open in Ismaning, the indoor carpet swing in Germany continues with the 25th edition of the Eckental Challenger, being held at the House of Sports.
Top seed Jordan Thompson leads the quarterfinals line-up at the International German Indoor Tennis Championships. The World No. 68 battled past local wild card entry Mats Rosenkranz in three sets in the first round and benefited from the retirement of 2014 Eckental champion Ruben Bemelmans on Wednesday. Thompson was leading 6-1, 3-1 when the Belgian veteran was forced to stop playing due to illness.
Thompson will next take on Marc-Andrea Huesler from Switzerland, who rallied past Austrian lucky loser Lucas Miedler 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.
Jiri Vesely leads the bottom half of the field. The No. 2 seed from the Czech Republic booked his place in the stage of the last eight with wins over his compatriot Jonas Forejtek in three sets and a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Italian Andrea Vavassori.
Vesely will next oppose big-serving US-American Maxime Cressy. The No. 6 seed defeated Geoffrey Blancaneaux of France 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday, firing 10 aces in one hour and 25 minutes.
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Masur flying the German flag
Daniel Masur remains the last German left in the singles draw. The 26-year-old from Munich outlasted No. 4 seed Oscar Otte from Germany in his opening match in three sets and beat Mirza Basic of Bosnia and Herzegovina 6-3, 6-4 in the second round. Masur saved the only break point he faced and capitalized on two of his own three break-point chances to advance after 64 minutes.
“I am very pleased,” Masur told Tennis TourTalk after the match. “I showed a solid performance against a very good player, winning in straight sets on carpet. I just need to be more calm with my forehand. I did too many errors. Yet, I didn’t win too many matches at Challenger level in recent times, so it feels good to win two consecutive matches at a very nice tournament close to my home town.”
Up next for Masur will be Ramkumar Ramanathan of India, who edged out 2017 Eckental champion and local hero Maximilian Marterer 7-5, 7-6(4) after one hour and 24 minutes.
In the remaining quarterfinal match, No. 5 seed Tomas Machac from the Czech Republic will take on Swiss young gun Dominic Stricker.
Eckental Challenger Results – Thursday
Singles – Second Round[5] T. Machac (CZE) d [Q] H. Squire (GER) 62 76(4)[6] M. Cressy (USA) d G. Blancaneaux (FRA) 63 64D. Masur (GER) d M. Basic (BIH) 63 64R. Ramanathan (IND) d M. Marterer (GER) 75 76(4)
Doubles – Quarterfinals[1] R. Jebavy (CZE) / J. O’Mara (GBR) d V. Cornea (ROU) / R. Ramanathan (IND) 64 64R. Bemelmans (BEL) / D. Masur (GER) d [2] D. Brown (GER) / A. Vavassori (ITA) 76(6) 63[3] S. Walkow (POL) / J. Zielinski (POL) d A. Cozbinov (MDA) / M. Cressy (USA) 64 67(2) 10-7A. Erler (AUT) / L. Miedler (AUT) d [WC] T. Sandkaulen (GER) / H. Squire (GER) 75 57 10-5
