Daniel Altmaier pulls off a big surprise at the French Open. © IMAGO/Hasenkopf
Daniel Altmaier achieves a great success at the French Open. The 24-year-old knocks out the highly traded Italian Jannik Sinner in round two.
Paris (dpa) - Daniel Altmaier screamed out his joy and let himself be celebrated for the sensation in a great tennis drama. The 24-year-old reached the third round at the French Open in a five-set thriller against Italian title contender Jannik Sinner. With an ace he made the 5: 26 (6: 7), 0: 7 (7: 6), 9: 7, 1: 6 (7: 6), 7: 4 perfect after 7:5 hours.
After he had already fended off two match points in the fourth round, Altmaier celebrated one of the greatest successes of his career. He had already forced Sinner into five sets in the first round of the US Open 2022 - at that time with the better end for the South Tyrolean. Against the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, Altmaier is now looking for a place in the round of sixteen.
Stunned by his own success, the German burst into tears shortly after the match. "This is a very big step in my career," he said at Eurosport.
Shortly before, Anna-Lena Friedsam was the last German starter in the women's competition to fail in the second round. The 29-year-old from Andernach lost to the Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova after only 62 minutes 2: 6, 0: 6 and remained largely without a chance. Previously, Jule Niemeier and Tatjana Maria had already been eliminated at the start.
Altmaier then pulled off a similar coup as in 2020, when he defeated the highly rated Italian Matteo Berrettini and reached the round of <> at a Grand Slam for the only time in his career so far. This success was also the only previous victory against a player from the top ten of the world rankings.
Altmaier started stable, was at times 4: 3 ahead with a break. After losing the tie-break to nil, he had a longer treatment on the middle finger of his left hand. The ice therapy helped, Altmaier converted the fifth chance to win the second set with an overhead ball after more than two hours.
Sinner seemed vulnerable, but initially turned up the heat. In just 27 minutes, the third set was gone from Altmaier's point of view. He does not see his second second-round game as a bonus, Altmaier had emphasized before the game. "If that were a reward, I wouldn't even need to go out on the pitch."
And also in the fourth round he continued to show great fighting spirit. But once again, the world number 79. don't take advantage of the advantage of a break. Altmaier fended off the first match point with a net roller and saved himself in the renewed tie-break. There he won the set with a fine volley stop - this passage alone lasted 90 minutes.
In the fifth round, he served to win with a score of 5: 4, suddenly his nerves fluttered. But again he took Sinner's serve - and was allowed to celebrate after plenty of trembling. (epp/dpa)
