OBERHACHING, October 16, 2016
Mats Moraing is the champion of the second edition of the Daikin Open held at the TennisBase Oberhaching. The world number 366 from Mulheim an der Ruhr emerged victorious from the all-German-final of the $10,000 ITF Pro Circuit event, beating Robin Kern 6-4, 6-2.
Moraing, who made it to the semi-finals last year in Oberhaching, was the more solid player from the baseline in a match, which was dominated by the serve and speed. The 24-year-old leftie didn’t face a break point, converting three of his own to finish the encounter with his ninth ace after one hour and 10 minutes.
“I served very well today and returned in an aggressive way, trying to put pressure on him. Then he started to make errors and this was probably the key to success,” Moraing told Tennis TourTalk after claiming his third title of the season. He had lifted the trophies in Kaarst and Ostend before. In Oberhaching, Moraing only dropped one set en-route to his fourth ITF career title.
“Winning a tournament is always a great feeling and gives you confidence for the next couple of weeks. It’s also good to gain some points for the ranking, so I am very happy,” he said. “Breaking into the top 300 until the end of the season is the goal now. So I need to keep it up like this and then we will see.”
Moraing will travel to Montpellier, competing at the $25,000 ITF event in Rodez next week. He closes the season with two ATP Challengers in Bratislava and Eckental as well as further Pro Circuit tournaments in Finland and the Czech Republic.
“I enjoy playing indoors on faster surfaces, as my serve can be very dangerous then. I feel pretty comforable in these kind of conditions,” Moraing explained his choice of continuing the season in Europe instead of going to the Middle East like he did last year. He earns $1,440 in prize money as well as 18 ATP ranking points.
“Improving my ranking position in order to play more Challengers next year is the goal and I am very confident that I am going to meet it, as long as I stay healthy. I had to cope with a couple of injuries in the past, but for the last six months I have been feeling good and this is the most important thing for me. “
Listen to our post match interview here (in German).