In Montemar

Neumayer loses another Challenger final

Lukas Neumayer lost another final.

(Bild: NÖ Open/M. Binder)

Lukas Neumayer has lost his fourth Challenger final. The player from Radstadt was beaten by a top 100 player in Montemar (Spain). Nevertheless, the 22-year-old has reason to be happy.

Touched a thousand times, nothing happened a thousand times. Tennis player Lukas Neumayer must be starting to feel something like that. At the Challenger tournament in Montemar, Spain, he lost his fourth final at this level and is still chasing his first title. This year, he has already lost the final in Tulln and last year's finals in Cordenons (It) and Salzburg. But the 22-year-old also sees it as a positive: "I've never lost a semi-final."

Neumayer put up a brave fight against the favorite Fabio Fognini (Italy) at the tournament in Spain. As a top 100 player, the Italian went into the final as the clear favorite, but struggled. "In terms of level, he wasn't much better than others," Neumayer recognized. Fognini won the first set 6:3, but the man from Radstadt hit back in the second, winning 6:2. The match seemed to be over quickly in the third set. Neumayer fought his way back to 3:5 in the meantime, but his opponent then brought it home with a break. "That cost me the match, I made a lot of unnecessary mistakes," sighed the 22-year-old.

The fact that Neumayer takes home around 6,000 dollars as a result of his place in the final and jumps up from 259th to 225th in the world rankings is little consolation for the 22-year-old.

A good consolation is that Neumayer will be able to compete in the qualifiers for the Australian Open in January. "That was my goal and it worked out," says the felt ball hunter, who now has three weeks of preparation ahead of him in Tenerife. He will enjoy the Christmas holidays in Pongau, followed by a preparatory tournament for the Grand Slam. There are no more tournaments this year. "Over the year as a whole, I've set myself more goals. The start of the season and the middle of the year were not good. I was very satisfied with the last few months," he sums up.