Altmaier the Warrior

The German comes through a big battle in his first-round match...

He was dealt a somewhat challenging opening round against Vukic, who had a lot of hardcourt wins under his belt. Now, this was a real gritty win... Altmaier got broken while serving for the first set (after almost being a double break up), then lost the tiebreaker 7-2. In the first game of the second set, he gets broken. Normally, a lot of players would have just rolled over in this kind of situation. Well, Altmaier manages to save 3 breakpoints in another game on his serve and then break back and win the tiebreaker, before winning the deciding set - an absolute rollercoaster of a match. We have seen how these kinds of "comeback" matches can really boost the player for the rest of the tournament... It's a bit cliché, but they are playing with "nothing to lose".

Well, it does not get easier from here! Nakashima is coming from an impressive run to the semifinals in Washington. I do want to point out that his wins against Mensik and ADM were a lot due to him being clutch and his opponents being the opposite, but he is still playing well. We know that his floor level is very high, so it will take a high level from Altmaier to beat him here. Of course, we have to note that Altmaier played a 3h match yesterday and is coming into this match without a lot of rest. I've mentioned in other previews that Altmaier has improved his game offensively, especially his net approaches, and this is always a great tool against Nakashima, who is rather static from the baseline, even if he has improved this part of his game as well!