Ten days before the start of the classic lawn game in Wimbledon, tennis pro Oscar Otte once again demonstrated his current impressive form and surprisingly reached the semi-finals of the tournament in Halle, Westphalia.
The 28-year-old from Cologne won in the quarterfinals against the Russian Karen Chatschanov 4: 6, 7: 6 (7: 5), 6: 4 and is thus in the semifinals of an ATP 500 tournament for the first time in his career.
Otte now meets Medvedev or Bautista
Otte converted his first match point against Chatschanov after 2:11 hours to the cheers of the enthusiastic spectators. In the semi-finals, the German number two will now face the winner of the game between the world number one Daniil Medvedev from Russia and the Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut on Saturday.
In the absence of Alexander Zverev, who was injured, Otte has long since played his way into the hearts of German tennis fans. As the day before when he defeated the Georgian Nikolos Bassilashvili in the round of 16, the spectators pushed the Rhinelander forward again and again, even in critical phases. Like in the round of 16, he turned the game around after losing the first set.
“The audience pushes me enormously. It’s great fun to play in front of so many spectators,” said Otte. “A few years ago I was still watching the matches from Halle on TV. And now I’m playing here on Center Court myself. It’s actually unbelievable,” says Otte, who had already reached the semi-finals in Stuttgart the week before.