Lawn hit on Mallorca

Ofner on Mallorca against Munar – LIVE today!

Sebastian Ofner(Bild: Freshfocus / EXPA / picturedesk.com)

Successful Mallorca opener for Austria's number 1 in men's tennis: Sebastian Ofner has won his duel with local hero Jaime Munar!

The Styrian won in three sets on Spanish grass by a wafer-thin margin of 3:6, 6:4 and 7:6(4). In the round of 16 of the ATP250 tournament, the Italian number 5 seed Luciano Darderi now awaits Ofner.

"It wasn't such a good match from me!"
"The stone is already bigger," said Ofner about his relief at the success against the world no. 63. "It wasn't such a good match from me. It was completely different to play than in Stuttgart or Halle. I had a bit of a problem there. I got off to a good start but then lost the feeling a bit. But he (Munar, note) doesn't feel one hundred percent comfortable on grass either - it was a battling victory."

Austria's number 1 started his first appearance at this event with a break to 2:1, after the re-break to 3:3 he had to give up his service a second time to make it 3:5. Ofner also took an early break in the second set, the Mallorcan hit back again, but this time Ofner managed to win the important game to win the set and equalize.

A nail-biter for Ofner came to a pleasing end
In the decider, the match went into a tie-break with several mini-breaks. Munar conceded the last two points with a failed stop and a double fault. This brought a nail-biting match to a pleasing end for Ofner.

"When you win one of four tiebreaks and lose twice so closely, your head starts to spin when it's that close again," said Ofner, referring to the most recent matches played in Germany. That's why it was good that I came over there." He expects an open match against the number 5 seed Darderi (ranked 37th in the world). "Now that I'm more inside. I know he serves well. And then we'll see how he plays against someone who can go for the rallies on grass."