MOUILLERON-LE-CAPTIF, October 7, 2021
Two German lefties advanced to the quarterfinals of the €66,640 Open de Vendée held at the Vendespace Arena in Mouilleron-Le-Captif in France.
Mats Rosenkranz, who knocked out top seed Benjamin Bonzi of France in the first round, benefited from the retirement of Kamil Majchrzak from Poland on Thursday to reach the stage of the final eight on the ATP Challenger Tour for the first time. The 23-year-old qualifier from Essen was leading 6-4, 3-1 when Majchrzak was forced to stop playing.
Rosenkranz will next challenge No. 6 seed Pierre-Hugues Herbert, who emerged victorious from the all-French encounter with Constant Lestienne, winning 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4.
Later in the day, Mats Moraing fought past Belgian qualifier Zizou Bergs 6-4, 6-7(2), 6-4. The World No. 171 from Mülheim an der Ruhr, who captured his fourth Challenger career title at the NÖ Open in Tulln, Austria last month, dominated the match with his big serve. Moraing fired 20 aces and won 89 per cent of his first-service points to succeed after exactly two hours of play.
2e TOUR 🔥
Pour son premier match Mats Moraing rejoint les 1/4 de finale 🇩🇪
L’Allemand remporte un beau combat face au jeune Belge, Zizou Bergs 💪🏼
6️⃣ 6️⃣ 6️⃣
4️⃣ 7️⃣ 4️⃣Rendez-vous demain @mats_moraing 🎉
📸 Ekla#ODV2021 #OpenDeVendee #Tennis #Vendee #ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/XZbfW7KZuJ
— Open de Vendée (@OpenVendee) October 7, 2021
“I feel tired tired now after a long match,” Moraing said. “We both served very well. There was one break in the first set. We both continued to serve well in the second set. He played a great tie-break. He is a great player. I felt some pain in the third set but kept fighting and I hope it will be good tomorrow.”
Up next for Moraing will be second-seeded Czech Jiri Vesely. The World No. 84 and highest-ranked player left in the singles draw in western France defeated local wild card entry Harold Mayot 6-2, 6-4. Vesely capitalized on all of his four break-point chances to prevail after 61 minutes.
