Indian Wells – Three of the six German tennis pros in the main draw of the Tennis Masters in Indian Wells have reached the second round.
In addition to Olympic champion Alexander Zverev, who will not start in the singles competition until his second-round clash with Tommy Paul from the USA due to a walk-through, Dominik Koepfer and Oscar Otte are also in the draw. Koepfer needed an energetic performance to beat Benoit Paire of France 2:6, 7:5, 6:4. The 27-year-old from Furtwangen fended off four match points. Koepfer will now face Russian Andrei Rublev in the second round of the 8,584,055 US dollar hard court tournament in California.
Earlier, Oscar Otte had already won his first round match. Otte defeated Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6:2, 1:6, 6:3 and will now face Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz, the eleventh seed, in the next round.
Philipp Kohlschreiber was the first German tennis professional to be eliminated from the Masters, followed by Daniel Altmaier and Jan-Lennard Struff in the course of the day. The 38-year-old Kohlschreiber from Augsburg lost to Emil Ruusuvuori from Finland 3:6, 3:6, while Altmaier was defeated by qualifier Steve Johnson from the USA 3:6, 6:7 (3:7). Struff lost to John Millmann from Australia 6:7 (6:7), 4:6. The event in Indian Wells is one of the most important tennis tournaments on the ATP Tour.
