Dominic qualified for an ATP 250 tournament for the first time. Stuttgart, for the Boss Open. What an incredible field of participants. Already in the qualifying, there were almost only players under ATP 100. Then came the draw and Dominic had to play in the first round against the No. 1 of the table Aslan Karatsev ATP 38. Playing on grass is always something special. Moreover, there are hardly any possibilities to prepare for it in Switzerland. Dominic was quickly trailing 2:5. Everything seemed to be going “normally”. But Dominic had something against it. He fended off 8 break points and 6 set points. The tie-break had to decide. And there Dominic played great and made Karatsev despair. Dominic won this sensationally with 7:2. After that the dam was broken and Dominic continued to play strongly. 6:1 in the second set and the victory against the No. 1 was perfect. What a start to the grass court season. In the second match, he faced the 1.98 m local hero, Mats Moraing ATP 123. It quickly became clear that a lot would be at stake here. The winner would qualify for the main draw. Both gave each other nothing. But Dominic kept his nerves under control and survived with a 6:4/6:3 his first qualification of an ATP 250 tournament.
In the first main round, Dominic faced the US American M. Cressy ATP 63. He had already reached the final in Melbourne this year, where he lost narrowly to R. Nadal. I have never seen such a player. There is no second serve with him. Every service, no matter if it was the first or the second, was always over 200 km/h. But Dominic also served well and it quickly became clear that we would go into a tie-break. Unfortunately, Dominic had his first small weakness and the first set was lost 6:7 (2:7). In the second set, the score was 5:5 and Cressy tried everything to get the break. And unfortunately this came true. 5:6 behind. The 1.98 m tall Cressy was able to serve for the win. And up to this point he was able to do so easily. Incredible returns from Dominic followed. The spectators on the centre court almost freaked out. The re-break was a fact and the match went to a short decision. Dominic managed the turnaround and the second set went to him 7:6 (7:5). The third set could not but go into a tie-break again. And there Cressy suddenly showed a weakness. Dominic, still playing actively, and Cressy struggled with his nerves and did not serve as consistently. At 6:2, Cressy served a double fault and Dominic won an unbelievable match, which was actually already lost, after more than 2.5 hours.
In the second round, Dominic faced none other than the No. 1 of the tournament, S. Tsitsipas ATP No. 5. It quickly became clear that this would be an extremely difficult opponent. He hardly made any mistakes and played solidly. Dominic, for his part, played his good tennis consistently, but unfortunately marked by 3 matches already. After 2 sovereign service games, he unfortunately had to give up his third and the set was gone. A small weakness at the beginning of the second set was exploited by Tsitsipas and he broke Dominic a second time. Apart from these two breaks, Dominic was fantastic and played at the highest level. Despite the 3:6/4:6, it was another great match.
What a great performance at this beautiful tournament in Stuttgart.
Stuttgart: “I’ll be back!”
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