It was a dismal day for the seeded players at the Kitzbuhel Open in Austria with No.1 seed Pablo Cuevas crashing out 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(3), to wild card entrant Sebastian Ofner.
The world No.27, who recently returned to the tour following a knee injury, was placed under pressure by Oftner from the onset. Losing his serve at the start of the rain-interrupted match, Cuevas dropped the opening set in just 27 minutes before fighting back to level the match at a set apiece. In the decider, both players matched each other game-by-game in what was a test of nerves. Cuevas eventually buckled to the world No.157 in the deciding tiebreaker after suffering back-to-back breaks of serves, allowing the underdog to seal the match.
“I’m happy that I stayed focused during the tie-break [and] I played well,” said Ofner. “For sure, the experience in Wimbledon helped me today. It’s a great feeling to be in the quarters and of course it’s very special to play in front of my home crowd.”
🇦🇹
Offner wows the home crowd with his 💪 defence then inch-perfect lob! pic.twitter.com/FdBl0mGT07
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) 2 August 2017
Austrian wild card Ofner made headlines last month at the Wimbledon championships. Coming through qualifying to reach his first grand slam main draw, he stunned Thomaz Bellucci and Jack Sock to reach the third round. Now progressing to his first ATP Tour quarter-final at the age of 21. Ofner admits that he still has a way to go to win his first title on the tour.
“Of course I think about it,” he said about winning the tournament. “But I’m so far away. I’m looking better game to game and (I will) focus on the next round.”
Cuevas’ downfall occurred on a day when six seeded players went out of the tournament. Paolo Lorenzi failed to capitalise on his seemingly comfortable lead over Joao Sousa. The Italian was ahead by a set and 4-2, but succumbed to a strong comeback from Sousa, who went on to take the match 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-1.
Gilles Simon struggled with his first serve on the Austrian clay, registering a below-par 38% success rate. Facing Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic, the Frenchman failed to convert four out of his five break point opportunities to crash out 6-4, 6-4.
Also on the casualty list is Horacio Zeballos, Jiri Vesely and Jan Lennard-Struff. All three of those players lost their second round encounters in straight sets.
The sole anomaly to the day of shocks was second seed Fabio Fognini. Bidding for his second title in as many weeks following his triumph in Gstaad, the Italian eased his way past Miljan Zekic 6-4, 6-4, in just 80 minutes.
Fognini is the only seeded player left in the draw.
Kitzbuhel quarter-final line-up
(WC) Sebastian Ofner AUT Vs Renzo Oliver ARG
Joao Sousa POR Vs (WC) Gerald Melzer AUT
Philipp Kohlschreiber GER Vs Dusan Lajovic SRB
Thomaz Bellucci BRA Vs (2) Fabio Fognini ITA
