Yannick Hanfmann caused a big surprise in Rome and reached the third round of the ATP 1000 tournament. In round two of the clay court masters, the qualifier from Karlsruhe beat world number ninth Taylor Fritz from the USA 6: 4, 6: 1 on Sunday (May 14, 2023) and now meets Marco Cecchinato from Italy.
Hanfmann, 31, didn’t get into the game well and quickly fell 3-0 down before the tide turned. Fritz, last year’s Masters winner at Indian Wells, appeared strangely lethargic as a result – in contrast to Hanfmann, who won five games in a row and won the set.
In the second round, too, Hanfmann acted in a concentrated manner and kept throwing the highly favored Fritz out of rhythm. After an early break, the world number 101 marched. one of the greatest successes of his career. In 2021 he defeated Frenchman Gael Monfils in Hamburg, who was also ninth in the ranking at the time.
Daniel Altmaier, on the other hand, missed progress. In the continuation of his game, which was canceled on Saturday due to rain, the qualifier was on the verge of victory against the American Frances Tiafoe in the second set on Sunday. Then world number twelfth Tiafoe turned the match around and won 3:6, 7:5, 6:3.