MUNICH, May 1, 2016
Philipp Kohlschreiber is the champion of the 2016 BMW Open by FWU AG. The 32-year-old local battled past third seed Dominic Thiem in an exciting final with a couple of spectacular rallies on Sunday afternoon in Munich.
The world number 27 from Germany was twice a break up in the opening set but couldn’t serve out in the tenth and neither in the twelfth game. The German was down 4-1 in the tie-break but eventually sealed the frame on his third set point 9-7 with Thiem netting a forehand longline.
Thiem broke serve in the seventh game of the second set to push the match the distance, which eventually was decided in the tie-break. After two hours and 31 minutes and in front of fully packed stands at the MTTC Iphitos, Kohlschreiber converted his fourth match point to celebrate his third title in Munich, following his victories in 2007 and 2012.
Dominic Thiem
There were also standing ovations for the runner-up.
“There were a couple of bitter points today but I think that Kohli deserves to win today. He was very clever on court and his return was very strong,” Thiem was a fair loser.
“My tennis was not the best this week but overall I am pleased to reach another final and I beat three strong opponents,” the Austrian youngster took some positives from this week and added that he will return in the future to eventually claim the title in the Bavarian capital.
Philipp Kohlschreiber
“Of course I am disapointed but tomorrow is another day when I will go to Madrid. I hope that I will be able to forget the painful defeat there.”
Kohlschreiber was understandably happy with his seventh ATP career title.
“It’s still great to celebrate titles at my age. I love to play tennis at the moment. The weeks, in which you are able to claim a title are rare and you need to enjoy it,” Kohlschreiber told.
“I just tried to stay aggressive in the match today. I needed to make some adjustments in the second set and I was able to read his game better in the final set again,” the top-German said and added that he gained some confidence from this win.
Kohlschreiber received a brand new BMW M4 Cabriolet, a traditional Bavarian Lederhosen, €82,450 in prize money as well as 250 ATP ranking points.
“This is the best car I received in Munich but the most valuable to me are the points. I still have a lot of energy inside me and I also still have goals. I don’t want to get to a world number one position but it’s still possible to climb up the rankings. I just want to work on my game with my entire team and I think that we are on a good way. Just going step by step. That’s my way.”
Earlier the day, third seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers captured their second team title, following their win in Brisbane earlier this season, with a 6-3, 3-6, 10-7 victory over the tournament’s number two pair of Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah. The doubles final lasted one hour and 20 minutes.
“Congrats to the champions. They deserved it,” Farah told on court. “It’s been our fifth or sixth time here in Munich and we are always impressed by the crowd coming out here to watch the doubles. We had a lot of fun this week, although it was tough because of the weather. But there aren’t many tennis players, who can say they played in snow. We had a good time!”
John Peers and Henri Kontinen with their second team title
Kontinen held the winner’s speech on court and said that he enjoyed the conditions here. “When the first snowflakes started falling, I knew it’s going to be my tournament,” the Finn stated but rectified his statement a bit later towards Tennis TourTalk.
“Ok, I was lying. I didn’t enjoy it. It was too cold,” Kontinen had to admit but was happy with the win. Two weeks ago Kontinen and Peers lost to the Colombians in the quarterfinals in Monte Carlo.
“We knew that’s it’s going to be tough but at key moments we played our best tennis.”
Peers posted a video of snowy Munich earlier this week.
“I always enjoy coming back to Munich but it was the first time that I played in snow. It was definetely an experience,” the Australian added. They are heading for Madrid on Sunday evening with the tournaments in Rome and Paris to follow.
