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The debut was more than successful: Jurij Rodionov left the center court of the Wiener Stadthalle as the winner in his first appearance in the main competition of the Erste Bank Open.
And this against the current world number 12: With 6: 4, 7: 5, the young man from Lower Austria put in his place the exceptional Canadian talent Denis Shapovalov.
“At first, of course, he was a bit under pressure, he started like the train,” said Rodionov, who received a break early in the game and initially fell 4-2. “Then I realized that the difference with the level was not so great.”
“The difference was that Jurij made far fewer mistakes. He deservedly won the match,” said LAOLA1 expert Jürgen Melzer, who was impressed by the youngster’s performance.
“I thought I was trying to annoy him, to make life difficult for him. I saw in the second sentence that he was not feeling well. I knew that if he wanted to beat a top 20 player in Vienna, then today is a good day. Now is an incredible feeling “said the 21-year-old beaming, who then thanked tournament director Herwig Straka for the wild card he received.
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ServusTV accompanied the Austrian tennis ace and his family as closely as possible on the road to their historic US Open triumph.
Rodionov thus continues the upward trend that he has shown several times this year in Vienna. Most recently, he won over at the French Open when he exited qualifying into the second round. In the first round, he brought experienced Jeremy Chardy to his knees in five sets in a tennis thriller.
Entry into the Top 130 possible
“Today’s game felt much better. It was in my hometown and it’s best played in front of a local crowd. I enjoyed every minute. It was great to win against one of the top 15, “said Rodionov, who will now also climb further in the ATP rankings.
The current world ranking 148. will improve by six positions for now. If Rodionov reached the quarterfinals, he would enter the top 130 for the first time and thus get closer to his goal: the jump to the top 100.
The next task is definitely doable: Lower Austria play Britain’s Daniel Evans or Slovenian qualifier Aljaz Bedene.
“I’ll just enjoy the next day or two and let everyone soak up this game. Then I’ll be as focused as I was today,” he is already looking forward to his next performance.
Hike under Thiem and Frana
Rodionov has been in Wolfgang Thiem’s training group since late last year. On the recommendation of Dominic Thiem’s coach Nicolas Massu, we started working with touring coach Javier Frana in February. Soon after, Rodionov won two Challenger tournaments before Corona’s breakdown slowed the steep ascent a bit.
After a somewhat difficult restart in the summer, Lower Austria is back in top form. “Training with Wolfgang Thiem definitely helped me. He helped me a lot in the search for a coach. I have been working with Frana since February and the results are very positive. The training conditions at Alt-Erlaa are probably the best by far. in Austria, “Rodionov thanked his team in the winner’s speech on center court.
The self-confident young man was not so convinced of his playful performance, but rather of his mental performance: “I don’t want to sound arrogant, but I don’t think that was my best tennis today. I wouldn’t say I was inhuman I was very mentally strong and he didn’t allow me to be distracted, “said Rodionov, describing his brilliant performance.
Text as: © LAOLA1.at
Erste Bank Open LIVE: Dominic Thiem vs. Vitaly Sachko
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