Davis Cup professional Oscar Otte has reached the quarter-finals of the lawn tournament in Halle, Westphalia.
The 28-year-old tennis player from Cologne won his round of 16 against Georgian Nikolos Bassilashvili 4: 6, 6: 0, 7: 6 (7: 3). After 1:56 hours, Otte converted his second match point. In the fight for the semi-finals, Otte will now face Karen Chatschanov on Friday. The Russian prevailed against the Serb Laslo Djere 7: 6 (7: 4), 6: 4.
“It’s great that I’m through,” said Otte after his success. “It was a difficult match. I tried to stay with myself and the spectators carried me.”
Otte got off to a weak start in the OWL Arena and conceded a quick break. The player from Cologne served well afterwards, but Otte had big problems on the return game. Only when the score was 4:5 did he earn the first two breakballs, which he was unable to use. Instead, Basilashvili got the first set after 36 minutes in the second attempt.
But Otte improved now. The Davis Cup professional managed a quick break in the second half, after which he had the game under control and after 1:06 hours of play managed to equalize the set 6:0. In the third round, Otte and Bassilashvili gave nothing. When the score was 5:5, Otte had to survive a critical phase with two breakballs, but fended off both. The first with a spectacular volley while falling. The momentum was now on Otte’s side. In the tie-break he made progress to the cheers of the spectators perfectly.