Young Frenchmen Pouille and Hemery Qualify in Hamburg and Gstaad
Adam Addicott, Tennis Atlantic

ATP Hamburg Qualifying Recap

Top seed Lucas Poullie booked his place in the main draw of the International German Open after surviving two tricky matches. In the first round he played former top 40 player Carlos Berlocq. After dropping the opening set to the 32-year-old, Poullie battled back to win 3-6, 6-1,6-3 to set up a final match with another Argentine player, Renzo Olivo. Similar to the first round the Frenchman dropped the first set before winning 5-7, 6-2, 6-2. Pouille is currently at a career high ranking of 87th in the world. Recently he reached the semi-final of the ATP Poznan Challenger in Poland before losing to eventual champion Pablo Carreno Busta.

Another player who is currently at their career ranking high is Íñigo Cervantes. The world No.117 has claimed three Challenger titles this year with his most recent being in Germany at the start of this month. During qualifying he shocked eighth seed and fellow countryman Daniel Muñoz de la Nava to win 6-4, 3-6,6-3. In the last round he played Slovakia’s Norbert Gombos. Gombos beat third seed Damir Dzumhur in the first round. Cervantes made light work of Gombos as he won 6-4, 6-4, to move into the main draw.

Taro Daniel is the only player to qualify for the main draw without dropping a set. After beating German wild-card Daniel Masur in straight sets. He faced another German test which was in the form of Maximilian Merterer. Merterer knocked out Italian second seed Marco Cecchinato in the first round. The inexperienced 20-year-old was no match for Daniel as he only dropped four games to win 6-3,6-1.

Finally, Albert Montanes encountered a major blip before beating Germany’s Mischa Zverev 6-0, 2-6, 6-4. After losing the second set, Zverev opened up a 3-0 lead in the final set before the Spanish player staged an impressive comeback to edge the German out after two hours and 11 minutes. Since June, Montanes has reached the final at three Challenger tournaments, narrowly missing out on the titles.

First round match results for the qualifiers

Taro Daniel and Albert Montanes were both shown the door, Daniel falling to Jerzy Janowicz early on Monday, and Montanes falling to German veteran Florian Mayer. Pouille beat Cervantes in a qualifier vs. qualifier matchup.

ATP Gstaad Qualifying Recap

Following top seed Facundo Bagnis early exit in the first round of qualifying at the ATP Swiss Open. The draw opened for some of the lesser known names on the ATP Tour to get their own taste of life on the main stage of men’s tennis.

20-year-old Calvin Hemery knocked out two seeded players to reach his first ATP main draw event. The Frenchman stunned 4th seed Gerald Melzer in round two before beating Italy’s Andrea Arnaboldi in three sets in the final round. After suffering a first set hammering, Hemery beat the Italian 1-6, 6-3,6-2. The 20-year-old is currently at a career ranking high of 211th in the world. In May he won his first pro title by winning the Italian F9 Futures.

Second seed Horacio Zeballos eased his way into the main draw following a 6-2, 6-4, win against fellow countryman Pedro Cachin. The Argentine encountered little difficulty during the three qualifying rounds with straight sets wins over Alexander Lazov and Tomas Lipovsek Puches prior to his final round triumph. The 30-year-old is currently ranked 136th in the world and is yet to claim a title this year. Going into the tournament, Zeballos beat Brazilian world No.89 Joao Souza to reach the quarter-final of the ATP Braunschweig Challenger.

Elsewhere in Gstaad there was joy for former world No.83 Julian Reister as he qualified for his second successive ATP main draw. Last week he qualified for the main draw of the Swedish Open where he lost to Alexander Zverev in the first round. The German, who used his protected ranking to enter the draw, knocked out seventh seed Giovanni Lapentti in the first round before easing past Adrien Bossel in the second. In the final round, he had a tough match-up against 3rd seed Kenny de Schepper however, he breezed past the Frenchman with a 6-3, 6-3 win.

Finally, Maxime Teixeira overcame two extremely close sets to beat world No.374 Daniil Medvedev. Teixeira required almost two hours on the court before winning 7-6 (5), 7-6 (12), with his eighth match point. The Frenchman also knocked out veteran player Nicolas Hanescu in the second round. This is the first time that the Frenchman has qualified for the main draw of an ATP event since the Stockholm Open back in 2012.

First round match results for the qualifiers

Zeballos upset Andrey Rublev, Teixeira fell to Denis Istomin, while Hemery found himself foiled by Dusan Lajovic in straights, and Reister is still yet to play Blaz Kavcic who he trails in the h2h 1-3.