0:2 defeat

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Lukas Neumayer

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

After Sebastian Ofner, Dominic Thiem and Joel Schwärzler, the fourth and last Austrian in the singles main draw of the Generali Open in Kitzbühel was also knocked out on Wednesday. Lukas Neumayer, who had narrowly beaten Ofner in three sets the day before and celebrated his first tour-level victory, lost 4:6, 4:6 after 83 minutes to Nicolas Moreno de Alboran from the USA, who, like himself, had a wild card.

Neumayer was not at all satisfied after his performance. "I wasn't able to carry the level of my groundstrokes from yesterday into today's match. Moreno served extremely well, I didn't get into the match at all in the return games," was his analysis. He never had a chance to break. "I always had to focus on getting through my service games."

Lukas Neumayer

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

"It annoyed me"
Günter Bresnik's protégé kept up well with his opponent, who is well ahead of him in the world rankings, for a long time. In the end, however, the 21-year-old from Salzburg had to concede one break in each set. "I hoped that I could turn the match around, also for the spectators, but I didn't manage it and that really annoyed me," said Neumayer.

The match started off very evenly, the difference in the ranking (Moreno 143rd, Neumayer 289th) was not visible. With commanding service games, the score was 4:4 before Neumayer suddenly found himself 15:40 behind in the ninth game. The 27-year-old US-American took his first chance to make the first break of the match and then served out for a 6:4 set lead.

The second set was almost identical: It was also 4:4 in this one before Moreno de Alboran took the service from the Austrian again to make it 5:4. On Saturday, he heads to the next Challenger in San Marino. After that, further Challengers in Italy are on the program.

Neumayer has been training with Bresnik in Südstadt for almost four years. "The combination fits really well, we decided four years ago that I would go to Vienna because I really like Günter and he is an extremely good coach, and I didn't have any training partners in Salzburg. It was extremely good in Vienna right from the start," explained Neumayer.

Since he has been working there, his strokes have become much faster. He is also able to train with players like Dennis Novak and Joel Schwärzler in Südstadt. He is not only taking his first victory at tour level from Kitzbühel. "It proves that I'm playing quite well and definitely have the level. Now I just have to be able to keep it up over several days."

Neumayer is not putting any pressure on himself for the future. "But my goal would be to get into the top 100 in the next two or three years." To achieve this, he needs to work most on his serve. His average speed needs to be at least 200 km/h.