Australian Open qualifier

Victory against Denmark! Neumayer in the second round

Lukas Neumayer reached the second qualifying round.(Bild: GEPA)

Lukas Neumayer has reached the second qualifying round at the Australian Open tennis tournament. The player from Salzburg defeated Elmer Möller from Denmark 6:7(5),6:3,6:4 at the start of the first Grand Slam tournament of the year in Melbourne on Monday. The ÖTV player still has to survive two more rounds for his first Major main draw, with Matteo Gigante from Italy waiting next.

In the first set, Neumayer, who is ranked 216th in the world, missed two break points at 5:5 against Möller, who is ranked 59 positions above him, and finally lost 5:7 in the tie-break. In the second set, the 22-year-old gave up his service at 2:3, but he turned the set around with two breaks in a row. The decision was dramatic. Neumayer first broke the Dane to 5:4, then missed four match points on his own serve and then had to fend off a break point. After 2:29 hours, the Austrian converted his fifth match point.

Now Gigante awaits
Neumayer has played the 23-year-old Gigante (ATP 146th), who is seeded 32nd in the qualifiers, twice on the ATP Challenger Tour and managed one win. In their most recent encounter a year and a half ago in the final of Cordenons, however, they lost 0:6, 2:6. On Tuesday, Yuriy Rodionov will play Argentinian Thiago Agustin Tirante in the Melbourne qualifier, while Sinja Kraus will play Slovakian Viktoria Hruncakova in the women's tournament.

Meanwhile, at the 766,290 dollar hard court tournament in Auckland, New Zealand, Lukas Miedler and Mexican Santiago Gonzalez were eliminated in the doubles in round one after losing 4:6, 3:6 to the top seeded pairing of Nikola Mektic/Michael Venus (CRO/NZL).