HAMBURG, March 14, 2024
At the end, relief was written all over Rudolf Molleker‘s face, as the World No. 187 from Germany secured a place in the quarterfinals of the Challenger Hamburg after a hard-fought 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 over Lithuanian veteran Ricardas Berankis on Thursday afternoon.
“In the first set, I managed to fend off several break points and manged to break his serve. Even in the second set, I had my chances, but I couldn’t capitalize on them, and things slipped away from me a bit,” said Molleker described his rollercoaster of emotions today, which, however, had a happy ending for the Berlin resident after one hour and 49 minutes.
“In the third set, I had to serve for the match twice and I am naturally very pleased to have brought home the win. In the end, every success, no matter how it comes about, is good for the confidence.”
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Molleker will face Henri Squire in his third quarterfinal of the still-young season.
“He is one of my best friends, which will certainly not make it easy. Nevertheless, we will both surely have our fun,” said the No. 6 seed about the first duel between the two Germans. “We have never played against each other on the tour. However, the matches in training are quite evenly balanced,” Molleker anticipates an exciting encounter for Friday.
Topo falls to Bellucci
Earlier, Marko Topo had to bid farewell to the ATP Challenger Tour 50 tournament. The German wild card entry fell to the fifth-seeded Italian Mattia Bellucci 4-6, 4-6. In an emotional match, Bellucci saved all seven break points he faced and converted both of his own two break-point opportunities to close out the match after one hour and 30 minutes.
“Marko is a young and good player. I knew I had to play aggressively. Overall, it was a good match,” Bellucci said afterwards. The 22-year-old, who is based at the MXP Tennis Academy in Milan, describes himself as a “creative player” on the court who plays solidly from the baseline.
“At the end of today’s match, I felt that things were going in the right direction. So I tried to put more variety into my game and may have even overdone it. Even though I’m not the tallest, I have a good serve, which helped me today.”
Bellucci is in Hamburg for the first time and has already received some tips for an excursion from a friend. “I was in St. Pauli and I was pleasantly surprised because Germany is not exactly known as a party destination in Italy. I noticed that many people were wearing hoodies with the St. Pauli skull. It was a nice experience overall,” the Inter Milan fan said of his first impressions of the Hanseatic city.
World No. 184 Bellucci, now the highest-ranked player left in the field, will face Yuta Shimizu of Japan in the quarterfinals. The 24-year-old from Kobe defeated Ergi Kirkin from Turkey 6-4, 6-4.
“I was very solid today. The conditions here suit my game. The court is not too fast,” said Shimizu, who is staying in Germany for the first time and has already developed a taste for the local beer. “We were in the brewery. That was a nice experience,” Shimizu said with a smile.
Ritschard wins all Swiss-affair
Earlier in the morning, seventh-seeded Alexander Ritschard showed his fighting qualities by defeating his Swiss compatriot Jakub Paul 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-2. The Challenger Hamburg champion of 2022 fended off four match points to secure victory after two hours and five minutes.
Ritschard will next face Belgian teenager Alexander Blockx, winner of the Australian Open juniors tournament last year.
