The world number 118, who had fought his way into his third Grand Slam main draw by qualifying at the French Open, defeated the American Maxime Cressy after 2:19 hours 6: 4.7: 6 (6 ),6:2. Cressy is number 44 in the ATP ranking. In any case, Ofner will meet an American again on Wednesday, namely Sebastian Korda (No. 24 seeded) or Mackenzie McDonald.
For Ofner, this means prize money of 97,000 euros and, with a total of 70 points so far, further progress towards his big goal, reaching the top 100 for the first time.
Ofner managed an early break to make it 2:1 in the first duel with the 2.01 m tall Cressy. Although he had to fend off two breakballs at 4:3, in the end he had set one in his pocket after 42 minutes. He also broke the world number 44 in the second round. immediately, but he got the lost game back to 1:1.
After that, Ofner missed no less than six breakballs in two of his opponent’s games, the Styrian only managed the deserved break at 6:5, but Ofner gave up the serve a little cheaply. Set two had to be decided in the tie-break. In this Ofner quickly led 4:0, but even then it was still tight. With the second set ball to 8:6, he still made it 2:0 in sets.
Ofner was clearly better in the third set, breaks to 2:0 and 6:2 sealed the success of the 27-year-old Styrian.
