The tennis year 2024 is coming to an end. While the absolute stars are no longer swinging the racket, tournaments continue to take place away from the big stage. A representative of the DTB rises to unimagined heights.
At the M15 tournament in Stellenbosch, South Africa, Nino Ehrenschneider (number 1172 in the world rankings) continued his unexpected winning streak on Saturday. After a hard-fought 7:5 and 7:5 against the fourth seeded Dutchman Niels Visker (number 513 in the world rankings), Ehrenschneider is in the final.
Remarkable: Visker was unable to record a break in the entire match, as Ehrenschneider kept his nerve in all seven of his opponent’s chances.
In the round of the last eight, the 23-year-old surprisingly won against the top seed Goncalo Oliveira (number 245 in the world rankings) from Venezuela.
However, Ehrenschneider also had the upper hand as his opponent had to give up when the score was 1:4. However, up to this point the German had the game under control.
By the way, Ehrenschneider won the M15 tournament in Malmö in 2022, but was hardly on the tour after that. It didn’t start regularly again until 2024.
Mona Barthel’s winning streak ends
In the final on Sunday, another high hurdle awaits with the South African Philip Henning (number 385 in the world rankings).
Meanwhile, Elmar Ejupovic missed the final at the M15 event in Huamantla (Mexico). The number 570 in the ATP ranking lost in the semifinals to the Ukrainian Aleksandr Braynin (number 770 in the world rankings) 6:7 and 6:7.
At the Challenger in Angers (France), the series of former German top 100 player Mona Barthel (number 183 in the world rankings), who lost 2:6 in the semi-finals to the American Alycia Parks (number 103 in the world rankings), also ended. Lost 6:1 and 3:6. Barthel had previously won eight matches in a row and won the title in Hamburg.