Munich. It was actually too cold for him: "I didn't feel my fingers that well at first",
said Ben Shelton, but the 23-year-old is still in the quarter-finals of the BMW Open by Bitpanda.
However, it was no easy task against Alexander Blockx from Belgium, the number 72 in the world.
The first set was completely even, with a single break at 5:4 in favour of Shelton deciding the match.
decision. It was a similar picture in the second set. Shelton's thunderous serves were followed by
followed by some easy mistakes. The American then had the better nerves in the tie-break and
and converted his third match point after 1:46 hours (6:4; 7:6(8)). The quarter-final has already
last year's finalist, now the Brazilian shooting star Joao Fonseca awaits.
The 19-year-old put in a sparkling performance against Arthur Rinderknech from France. Under
France to the cheers of his vociferous fans, he won 6:3 and 6:2,
Flavio Cobolli from Italy, also left nothing to be desired and won easily against Zizou Bergs from Belgium
(6:2; 6.3).
Stefanos Tsitsipas only made a brief Munich debut. After his back injury, the Greek
back injury, not least because the BMW Open by Bitpanda has the "nicest tournament director on the tennis tour".
tournament director on the tennis tour". Patrik Kühnen certainly liked hearing that, but the former
former world number three lost anyway, against Fabian Marozsan from Hungary in three sets (6:3;
6:7(5); 4:6).
The newly crowned Monte Carlo winners in the doubles, Kevin
Krawietz and Tim Pütz, also left the court rather disappointed. Instead of marching towards their first title in Munich, they suffered an
unexpected two-set defeat for the German doubles team, seeded number one, against the
Indian-New Zealand pairing Yuki Bhambri and Michael Venus. "We're not happy with our
performance," said Kevin Krawietz after the match (5:7; 6:7(2)).
Tomorrow, the last two German players remaining in the tournament will play their
their round of 16 matches. Daniel Altmaier will be up against Fabian Marozsan from Slovakia and
defending champion Alexander Zverev will play Gabriel Diallo from Canada. What mood
Zverev's mood going into the match will probably also be decided tonight: at the quarter-final second leg of his favourite club in the Champions League - Alexander Zverev "definitely" wanted to go to the Allianz Arena for FC Bayern's match against Real Madrid.
Stream all matches for free on Joyn
Once again, all matches from centre court can be followed live and free of charge via the streaming app Joyn. Supplemented by highlights, behind-the-scenes and news coverage, viewers will not miss a second of the BMW Open by Bitpanda 2026 there and on ran.de. Both singles semi-finals on Saturday and the singles final on Sunday will also be broadcast live on ProSieben Maxx. As usual, Sky will broadcast all matches on pay TV, while Eurosport will show the first match of the day live from Monday to Friday.
