Jurgen Melzer made an heroic turnaround from the verge of defeat on Sunday, beating compatriot Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-7 (10/12) 7-6 (7/4) 6-4 to win the Austria Tennis Trophy for a second straight year.
The top seed and world No. 12 needed almost an hour per set as he held off a ferocious series of charges from his 157th-ranked compatriot, finally ending on his first match point in a shade over two and three-quarter hours.
Haider-Maurer had served for the upset leading a set and 5-4 but fell victim to a foot fault and a pair of double-faults in the key game.
PHOTO: AFP
The underdog challenger also saved five break points in the seventh game of the hour-long first set, which he finally claimed on a fifth set point.
“Andi was the better player at the start but in the end, I deserved this victory,” Melzer said. “This title is coming at the end of a great season for me. It’s the best thing ever to win at home.”
The dramatic contest was the first all-Austrian final on the ATP since 1995 when Thomas Muster defeated Gilbert Schaller in Bucharest. It was the first all-Austrian final in Vienna in 22 years.
Melzer is the first player to repeat as champion in Vienna since Ivan Ljubicic in 2005-2006.
Haider-Maurer, set for a move inside the top 120, came out pleased with his surprise showing.
“It’s been a wonderful week, now my next goal is the 100. If I just keep working, I think it’s only a matter of time,” he said.
“I don’t remember the moment, but ever since I was a kid, that’s the first thing I loved,” two-time NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas said of his lifelong romance with basketball. However, that journey unfolded against the limitations of his size in a game where height often dictates opportunity — a reality he confronted throughout his career. At 175cm, Thomas is less than 2cm taller than the average Taiwanese adult male, while NBA players during his career stood at about 200cm on average. Compared with the NBA’s average career length of less than five years, Thomas’ 13-season career stands out as
Hans Niemann declares he would become a “stone cold killer” in a Netflix documentary released on Tuesday about his feud with five-time classical world champion Magnus Carlsen, a pledge that injects new edge into the lingering fallout from the cheating scandal that shook elite chess. “I’m gonna be a stone cold killer the rest of my life,” the US’ Niemann says in the film. “I’m going to become the best player in the world, and no one is going to believe that now, but this clip will play over and over again in 10 years — just wait.” “I just
Dakar and Rabat have longstanding ties, but relations have been strained since the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final, which Senegal won in mid-January before being stripped of the title, which was transferred to Morocco. Now, the AFCON trophy is something of a thorn in the two countries’ sides. On Rue Mohamed V, the street where Moroccan vendors are based in the Senegalese capital, a police van is parked. “The police have been on high alert since the Confederation of African Football [CAF] decided to award the title to Morocco, but there have been no incidents,” a local resident said.
Taiwanese “boxing queen” Chen Nien-chin today won the women’s 65kg division final at the Asian Boxing Elite Championships in Ulaanbaatar, securing Taiwan’s first gold medal in that weight class at the tournament. Chen defeated North Korea’s Hwang Hyo Sun 4-1, after the two were tied through the first two rounds. Chen won bronze in the 66kg division at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
RSS