Oscar Otte in Stuttgart: "Now don't be lazy"
Oscar Otte (ATP No. 61) continues where he left off at the ATP tournament in Stuttgart - and continues to grow in his role as a top player in Germany. He doesn't see the end of the flagpole, it should go further up.
by Florian Goosman from Stuttgart
last edit:
Jun 09, 2022, 11:50 pm
Oscar Otte finally won it, the close, tight match against a top player. Against Denis Shapovalov it was tight again - Otte won twice in the tie-break on Thursday. And tight matches on grass are then even narrower anyway. A well hit return here, a place error there, it's the minimal differences.
Otte classified his victory over Shapovalov as an "important step in the right direction", "these are the things that are still missing: to bring the wins home against the top guys." Because there were many tight games for Otte recently, in Indian Wells (against Hubert Hurkacz) or Miami (against Gael Monfils), with the better ending for the others. "It's very important for me to have decided a game like this for myself."
Oscar Otte and the handshake with Andy Murray
Otte has had a remarkable rise in recent months. Until 2017 it ranked in regions around 500 to 1000, until 2021 around 150 to 200. But since last spring it has been annoying the big boys. Alexander Zverev needed five sets against Otte in Paris, as did Andy Murray in Wimbledon.
Murray, the great sportsman, gave Otte benevolent words during the handshake: he should keep at it, keep going, there's still more in it for him! Otte continued, he qualified for the round of 16 at the US Open and won the Challenger tournaments in Ismaning, Ortisei and Bari. At the beginning of the year he made it into the top 100 in the world for the first time and qualified for a Grand Slam tournament at the Australian Open for the first time.
Murray's words that they stuck revealed Otte in Stuttgart. "It meant a lot to me to hear something like this from such an icon in tennis. 'Keep at it, then it can go up!' I did that with my team. I've had it in recent years, but fortunately things clicked in some areas last year.” It's a cool feeling to have practically reached the top, says Otte. “But there is still no reason to take off. We continue to work in a focused manner.”
Oscar Otte is number 2 in Germany after Alexander Zverev
The fact that he is currently the German number 2 sounds “completely sick”, said the man from Cologne. "If someone had told me ten years ago, I would have said, 'Dude, what's the matter with you?' Being in this role now is unbelievable." It pushes him even more, says Otte, "I won't just sit around and work more in every area, approach everything even more professionally. And hopefully get to the top.”
Because that's his childhood dream, he's been training for it for years. "I'm still at a good age, I'll be 29 next year, that's no reason to stop." For Otte, who has collected his merits on the ITF and Challenger Tour for years, things should really get going now. "Even back then, it was fun for me to be on the pitch every second at the smaller tournaments," he added.
Victories like the one against Shapovalov, big matches, give you “mega self-confidence”. It's the mental level. “We didn't reinvent the wheel with training or with nutrition. That's professional, you have to pay attention to it. But it's this mental track that I've seen: you can play there, you belong there too. Of course that helps."
Otte has a good chance of continuing to prove himself in Stuttgart: The opponent in the quarter-finals this Friday (at 11 a.m.) is Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi, currently number 58 in the ranking and thus only just ahead of Otte. If he acts like he did against Shapovalov, with the strong serve, the board on the return, the touch in the rally and the slice for in between: It could go further where Otte wants to go - even further up!