Oscar Otte carries the German tennis hopes in Wimbledon. In the duel with the Spanish child prodigy Carlos Alcaraz, the man from Cologne calculates something – and then gets badly beaten up. The 19-year-old proves how quickly he learns – and how quickly he sprints.
The shooting star was at least one size too big: Germany’s great tennis hope Oscar Otte lost in the third round in Wimbledon without a chance against the Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz. The 3: 6, 1: 6, 2: 6 lasted only 98 minutes, and Otte had calculated “good chances” against the sensation of this season on the pitch. After all, in the absence of Olympic champion Alexander Zverev (Hamburg), he was the German number one and set in a Grand Slam for the first time. In addition, Alcaraz was a little strange with the lawn at least in the first round against Jan-Lennard Struff (Warstein) and only just avoided an early end.
But against Otte from Cologne, who was last semi-finalist at the lawn tournaments in Stuttgart and Halle, the 19-year-old showed how quickly he learns – and again and again how quickly he sprints. Otte was often amazed at Alcaraz’ athleticism. “I don’t know what was going on, but that was definitely nothing today,” said Otte about a “match to forget.” In the end, the Spaniard rolled over him. “I didn’t know what to do. He played well. It would have been difficult if I had shown my best tennis. But I made it way too easy for him.”
After many good weeks, which have pushed him far up the world rankings, he doesn’t want to “let a poor performance get him down”. The 28-year-old was the only German in the men’s third round. Seven had started on Monday, apart from Otte only qualifier Maximilian Marterer (Nuremberg) had reached the second week in the All England Club.
Meanwhile, the lord of the aces struck again, broke the world record and was eliminated in Wimbledon: John Isner broke the record for the direct service points of the Croatian Ivo Karlovic (13,728). Isner served 24 aces against Italy’s Jannik Sinner and now stands at 13,748. The 37-year-old from the USA still lost the third round match: Isner even gave up his serve twice at 4: 6, 6: 7 (4: 7), 3: 6. He did not earn his own breakballs. Sinner now meets Alcaraz.
Isner once set another world record at Wimbledon: that of the longest match in tennis history. In 2010 he played lawn tennis for eleven hours and five minutes against Frenchman Nicolas Mahut – and won. With 70:68 in the fifth set.
