2023-11-09 00:18:25
Jurij Rodionov, however, was narrowly eliminated in the round of 16 in the Bulgarian capital.
Victory and defeat for Austria’s currently best and third-best player on Wednesday at the Sofia Open. Sebastian Ofner reached a quarter-final on the ATP tour at the ATP 250 hard court indoor event at noon for the third time this season after Bastad (Sweden) in July and his semi-final in Astana (Kazakhstan) at the beginning of October. The seventh-seeded Styrian (ATP 44) also won his second match against the Australian Christopher O’Connell (ATP 66), after a 2:15-hour fight, 6:7 (6), 6:4, 6:2 decide and remains the only ÖTV representative in the race. Jurij Rodionov defended himself against eighth-seeded Marton Fucsovics in the round of 16 for just four minutes less time. But the Lower Austrian (ATP 110) had to narrowly admit defeat to the Hungarian (ATP 47) 6:3, 4:6, 1:6.
Ofner had the upper hand against O’Connell just three weeks ago at the ATP 500 tournament in Tokyo with 6:7 (2), 7:6 (5), 7:5. And he also narrowly prevailed in Sofia. The 27-year-old gave up set one, after initially fending off four break chances at 2:3 and two destroyed set points at 5:6, after a 5:2 and 6:4 lead in the tiebreak and two missed set points. Due to a service loss at the start of the second round, he was already behind 0:2, 1:3 and 2:4 when he managed to turn things around with a run of 16:4 points. In the third section he took advantage of the only break opportunity in the second game for a long time and finally broke O’Connell again after a fight to win. Now the second-seeded Frenchman Adrian Mannarino (ATP 25), against whom he lost 4:6, 2:6 in the Astana semifinals, awaits him. The match is scheduled for Thursday at no earlier than 5:00 p.m. CET.
Rodionov still has to worry about Melbourne 2024
Rodionov had already been defeated by Fucsovics in Stuttgart 2022 after leading the set 7:6 (5), 3:6, 4:6, and that was repeated in Sofia. He clearly won the first set with breaks in the first and last game and only had to fend off a break opportunity at 2-1. But after he missed one himself in the second round at 2:1 and lost his service after a fight and a game ball at 3:3, the game turned around. The 24-year-old fell behind in the decision right from the start, after a 30-0 and 40-30 lead, the double break followed to make it 1:4, and a re-break chance also remained unused. Shortly afterwards, Fucsovics managed another break to success. “Unfortunately it wasn’t enough today,” Rodionov mourned on social media after missing another step towards the main Australian Open competition. In order to achieve this with a targeted end of the year in the top 100, “I’m going home two days before my last tournament series begins in Japan.” At the moment, the ATP live ranking has him at number 105.
Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler also had no luck in the doubles competition late on Wednesday evening. The Tyrolean and the Lower Austrian lost in the first round as fourth-ranked teams to the combination of Gonzalo Escobar (Ecuador) and Aleksandr Nedovyesov (Kazakhstan) 5:7, 2:6. At 5:4, the two of them were unable to take advantage of the only two break and set points in the first set for a long time – and had to give up their serve in the next game. In the second set, Erler/Miedler were no longer able to gain ground and conceded breaks after game balls to make it 1:2 and 1:4. With this, Escobar/Nedovyesov achieved revenge for the Generali Open Kitzbühel, where Erler/Miedler had prevailed 6:4, 6:4 in the final in front of an enthusiastic home audience in August.
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