DAniel Altmaier tried his best and mobilized his last reserves – but the air was out. After the surprise coup in the second round of the French Open, the 24-year-old clearly missed the round of 16 in Paris and thus also the possible German duel with Alexander Zverev, who fought Frances Tiafoe in the night session for his ticket for the round of the top 16 .
Altmaier, who had absolutely no chance in the end, had to admit defeat against the experienced Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 4:6, 3:6, 1:6. In 2020 he had made it to the round of 16 with his favorite gymnast – this time it wasn’t enough. Dimitrow used his first match point after 2:07 hours.
It was emotionally and physically difficult to process the previous match. “At the end of the day, you’re only human and can learn from it. If it then hopefully becomes a reality week after week to play against these top guys, it will hopefully be natural,” said Altmaier, assessing his tournament and the work of the past few weeks as “very positive”: “There are still a lot of construction sites, but we are have had nice moments.”
Altmaier had seemed inhibited from the start, tiredness still seemed to be stuck in his bones after his marathon match against Jannik Sinner two days earlier. After a late break, Dimitrov was able to celebrate winning the first set, and the Bulgarian fans in the stands did the same. Altmaier’s opponent also dominated the match afterwards. Altmaier had big problems with his serve in particular – after the next early break he threw his racket in the air in frustration.
Even the Paris audience, whose hearts Altmaier had conquered with his irrepressible fighting spirit on Thursday, could not drive him to success. Dimitrov almost always had the right answer to Altmaier’s ideas, which fell completely apart towards the end of the game. The former Wimbledon semi-finalist easily qualified for his second round of 16 in Paris.
Zverev meets Tiafoe in his second night session in a row. Exactly one year after his severe ankle injury, the duel with the twelfth in the world rankings from the USA is the first real test of maturity for the Olympic champion, who has been in form for a long time. After a bumpy start to the tournament, his easy second-round win over Slovakian Alex Molcan gave hope for the hoped-for success in Roland Garros.
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