Luke Neumayer reached the second qualifying round at the Tennis Australian Open. The Salzburger defeated the Dane on Monday at the start of the first Grand Slam tournament of the year in Melbourne Elmer Moller with 6:7 (5), 6:3, 6:4. The ÖTV player still has to make it to his first major main draw survive two more roundsnext up is a player with a big name, the Italian Matteo Gigante.
In the first set, Neumayer, who was ranked 216th, missed two break points against Möller, who was 59 positions ahead of him, when the score was 5:5 and ultimately lost in the tiebreak with 5:7. In the second round, the 22-year-old gave up his service to make it 2:3, but with two breaks in a row he turned the set. The decision was dramatic. Neumayer first broke the Dane to make it 5:4, then missed four match points on his own serve and then had to fend off a break point. After 2:29 hours, the Austrian converted his fifth match point.
Now Gigante is waiting
Neumayer played against the 23-year-old Gigante (ATP 146th), who was seeded number 32 in the qualification, twice on the ATP Challenger Tour and managed one win. In the most recent meeting a year and a half ago in the final of Cordenons there was a smooth 0:6, 2:6 defeat.
The Melbourne qualifiers are on Tuesday Yuri Rodionov in action against the Argentinian Thiago Agustin Tirante, who plays for the women Sinja Kraus against the Slovakian Viktoria Hruncakova.
Meanwhile, the hard court tournament in Auckland, New Zealand, worth $766,290, is taking place Luke Miedler in the doubles with the Mexican Santiago Gonzalez in round one with a score of 4:6,3:6 against the top seeded pairing Nikola Mektic/Michael Venus (CRO/NZL).