MUNICH, April 29, 2018
Four players from Slovakia advanced to Munich’s second round of the qualifying, but only one of them booked his spot in the main draw of the BMW Open by FWU on Sunday.
In sunny conditions, Martin Klizan edged out his compatriot Jozef Kovalik in the final match of the day on Court 1. The 28-year-old from Bratislava saved both break points he faced, capitalizing on four of his own to secure a 6-1, 6-2 victory in one hour and 12 minutes.
“It is always a strange feeling when you play against your teammate. He is a great player but I was in good form today,” Klizan was pleased with his performance. The World No. 140 arrived in Munich just in time to win his opening match against Ernests Gulbis in three sets.
“Yesterday, I arrived here about one and a half hour before the start of my first match. It was pretty difficult for me to adapt to the conditions. I was tired, as my flight was almost two hours delayed. I was sitting all day, in the car, at the airport, in the plane, so it was very tough. During the warm-up I felt some pain in my knee and I almost retired from the match.”
Klizan returns to Munich, where he lifted his second trophy on the ATP World Tour back in 2014. One year later, the left-hander reached a career-high ranking at World No. 24 but he had been sidelined from the courts for almost the entire 2017 season due to left calf injury. Now he has started to climb back up the rankings. He enjoyed a great run in Barcelona last week, reaching the quarterfinals with victories over Federico Delbonis, Novak Djokovic and Feliciano López and eventually fell to the king of clay Rafael Nadal.
“I played six matches in seven days, which gave me a lot of confidence. I am in good shape and I am happy to play again here in Munich,” Klizan told. He will open his main draw campaign against German veteran Florian Mayer.
Dustin Brown – photo: Florian Heer
The Slovak will be joined by Marius Copil, who rallied past Andrej Martin of Slovakia 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. The World No. 84 from Romania will face #NextGenATP Norwegian Casper Ruud in the first round.
Dustin Brown and Daniel Masur delighted the home crowd with wins over Austria’s Dennis Novak and Norbert Gombos from Slovakia, respectevely. Brown will play against fellow German Maximilian Marterer next and Masur will take on Jan-Lennard Struff.
Monfils arrives in Munich with broken rackets
Gael Monfils‘ Munich campaign did not start in the best way. During his flight from Geneva to the capital of Bavaria on Saturday all of his rackts got broken. The 31-year-old Frenchman, who is set to make his fourth appearance at the BMW Open, called out Lufthansa on Twitter.
Totally unacceptable service from @lufthansa today between Geneva and Munich… pic.twitter.com/N0fRtVZIlY
— Gael Monfils (@Gael_Monfils) 28. April 2018
When he arrived at the venue of the MTTC Iphitos on Sunday, Monfils was at least holding a racket in his hand, hitting with Ivo Karlovic on the practice court. The seventh seed will open his title bid against Mirza Basic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Good news from Munich! @Gael_Monfils is holding a racket in his hand & it’s in one piece. #bmwopenbyfwu pic.twitter.com/ZczpZOB3KS
— Florian Heer (@Florian_Heer) 29. April 2018
