May Recap: Summer is slowly getting rolling

After a few narrow defeats in April, Constantin Frantzen and I were able to celebrate new successes again in May. In the first tournament of the month we went to Cagliari for the “Super Challenger” in category 175.

This category is intended to promote the Challenger Tour and to give players who were eliminated in the first week of the Masters in Madrid the opportunity to play another tournament. Accordingly, the entry cuts were very strong, Constantin took the train to Stuttgart on Monday at random, and we didn't know until 12 o'clock whether we were going to Cagliari, Aix en Provence or Prague. At 12:05 the supervisor in Calgiari (Sardinia) gave us the OK and we discovered that our flight options were now fully booked. Thanks to many years of experience in European air traffic 😉 we found a 6 a.m. flight from Basel on Tuesday morning. I think every tennis player could run a travel agency after their career, but unfortunately these are becoming increasingly extinct.

Short training session in Stuttgart, and then by train to Basel. 4 hours of sleep and there we were at the 5.30 boarding gate Calgiari. We then went to the hotel to take a break before going to training in the afternoon. Some now think that you have to be crazy to put yourself through these strains. At the end of the day, it is a job that has advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, there is this stress and you have a lot of obligations on the weekends, but on the other hand, sometimes we sit at the tournament and there is a break in the rain. Very little happens on days like this, but there is still prize money and paid hospitality. And we can make money with tennis, if you reflect on that, it puts a lot of things in a better light.

NAs for the results, in Calgiari we won against Behar/Barrientos (both Top 65 ATP doubles) 76 75, before losing 67 76 6-10 against Erler/Miedler (Top 35 ATP doubles). Thanks to the higher category, we were able to collect a few good world ranking points with just one win, then we went on to Mauthausen, Austria. Constantin had a league game and couldn't arrive until Monday. I then decided to register for the individual qualifying and surprisingly moved up. I still play a lot of singles in league games, so I'm in good shape for singles matches. I was then able to qualify for my first Challenger main draw with wins against Kym (410 ATP singles) and Hassan (265 ATP singles), where I lost to the experienced Romanian and former top 100 player Marius Copil (ATP 390) in 3 sets .

The singles were a lot of fun and I was also able to collect some good prize money. One day after losing the singles, the doubles started. With victories over Neuchrist/Oberleitner, Cacic/Nedovyesov and Bortolotti/Cervantes we were able to reach the final of the Challenger 100 in Mauthausen. Unfortunately, we were a little too clearly defeated against Arneodo/Weissborn, they never let us get into the game and then deservedly defeated us in two sets. A good week with very fair fans from Austria and good organization, we were also accommodated in a top hotel. Even though you're not at home, you feel very at home during weeks like this.

One of the 175s was planned again for the third tournament week of the month. For Constantin it was the same procedure as 2 weeks ago. Train to Stuttgart, and then we narrowly made it into the Bordeaux tournament again. This time there was no flight option, so we had to travel the distance by car. After a day of training we played against the top 10 team Lloyd Glasspool and Harri Heliovaara, after 36 25 we were able to turn it around again and win the second set 75 before we were defeated 2-10 in the champions tiebreak. After the good comeback, the smooth CT hurt a bit, but still a good performance against one of the best teams in the world right now.

I will now train for about 10 days and play a club match in Luxembourg, then I will continue with the Challengers in Germany in Troisdorf and Heilbronn in June.

With sporty greetings

Hendrik