ATP tournament in Halle

Sebastian Ofner against Zhang Zhizhen today LIVE

Short pleasure for Sebastian Ofner in Halle! The Styrian had to concede defeat to China's Zhang Zhizhen in the opening match on Monday in three sets with 6:7(8), 7:6(3) and 4:6.

For the 28-year-old Styrian, it was a botched double premiere at the ATP 500 event in Halle with prize money of 2.41 million euros, both in Westphalia and against Zhang. Ofner will now play on Mallorca next week, where Dominic Thiem will also be competing thanks to a wild card.

Tough exchange of blows
In the first duel with the world number 42 from Shanghai, whose nickname is "ZZZ", the expected close match developed. Ofner, who is ranked ten places behind Zhang, kept up well with the Asian rising star, but in the end it was Zhang's more stable serve that proved decisive.

Zhang was the first Chinese player ever to crack the top 100 and then the top 50 in the ATP ranking last January. The Asian showed why with a very complete game and a very strong serve. In the first set, it was also Ofner who had to fend off three break points at 1:1 before the service game went into a tie-break. In this, he made up 0:3 and 4:6, fended off three set points and missed one himself at 7:6. Zhang then converted set point number four to make it 10:8.

The second set went into another tie-break without a single break chance on either side, the fourth in Ofner's short grass court season to date. Last week in Stuttgart, he had lost 6:7, 6:7 to Jack Draper (GBR). In the fourth tiebreak en suite on grass, however, the winner was Ofner, who won 7:3.

A single break - against Ofner
In the deciding set, Austria's number one had to concede the first loss of serve of the match. Zhang used his fifth break point to make it 3:2. Ofner fended off a break point at 2:4 and a match point at 3:5 and reduced the deficit in each case, but with the advantage behind him, Zhang was not to be denied victory. Ofner thus missed out on a possible round of 16 duel with Daniil Medvedev (RUS-3).