ATP Challenger Antalya: Ofner’s strong week only ends in the final – ÖTV

It was another strong tournament week for Sebastien Offner: With four victories, most of them hard-fought, the 26-year-old reached his second season finale at the Megasaray Hotels Open in Antalya, following up at the ATP 100 hard-court contender in Tenerife. in january. However, he still has to wait for the fourth title coup at this level after Astana 2018, Puerto Vallarta 2019 and Prague 2022. Because the top-ranked Styrian (ATP 160) had to bow to the second-ranked Hungarian Fabian Marozán (ATP 163) 5:7 , 0:6 in the ATP 75 final on clay courts Sunday morning. However, protecting Wolfgang Thiem’s ​​ATC Academy earned him an extra 50 ATP points this week, which means he’s already in 137th place in the direct ATP rankings. His previous career high of 126th is getting closer and closer. Only starting his comeback after a heel injury in April 2022, he had no points defense for another five weeks and had to finish the previous season again at the end of September after another operation on the heel.

Offner won the only duel with Maruzan in the round of 16 in Tenerife 6: 4, 6: 4. And at first it seemed good with a repeat of success: although he had to give up a break in the first match and lead with a score of 2-0, another one She was in the air after that. However, Ofner was unable to convert two break chances at 2:2 and 4:4 and 0:30 at 3:3 between them into a decisive advantage. After two set pieces saved at 4:5, the next game was again unsuccessful with the break despite having a chance, after which Saint-Marinier gave up serve after 30:15 to an unfortunate loss of the set, as the better player up to that point tilted the game. In the second round, Maruzan played well leaving Only Ofner with eight points. Overall, he was still able to sum up very positively: “I couldn’t get a win today, but another final,” Offner wrote on his official Instagram page and promised: “I will work hard for my first title this year.”

Here are all the results of the ATP 75 Challenger in Antalya.