18-year-old Rudolf Molleker meets Federer and Zverev in Halle with a WC
The 27th edition of the ATP 500 event in Halle will take place between June 17-23, serving as the last big test for many players from the top ahead of the third Grand Slam of the season at Wimbledon. The nine-time champion Roger Federer who has his street in Halle will headline the field again together with Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem, Kei Nishikori, Karen Khachanov and the defending champion Borna Coric who stunned Roger in the title match a year ago. An 18-year-old Rudolf Molleker had a chance to make a debut in Halle 12 months ago, entering the third ATP tournament (scored a win in Stuttgart a week ago) and losing in the opening round to Nikoloz Basilashvili in two close sets.
Ranked 177th, Rudolf has been one of the most prominent players on the Tour born in 2000 together with Felix Auger-Aliassime and Nicola Kuhn, entering the ATP list at the age of 15 back in 2016. Rudolf's first professional title came in Heilbronn Challenger last year in May, scoring four consecutive wins in three sets to earn 100 points and propel his ranking to just outside the top-300. This result secured Stuttgart and Halle main draw wild cards for the youngster who defeated Jan-Lennard Struff in Stuttgart for the first ATP victory at the age of 17.
A month later in Hamburg, Molleker was in the main draw again and this time he toppled the Spanish veteran David Ferrer after two and a half hours, advancing into two Challenger semi-finals to close the year just outside the top-200. The youngster qualified for the main draw at the Australian Open this January for Grand Slam debut and losing eight straight encounters after that. Since the beginning of April, Rudolf grabbed 11 Challenger wins and his third ATP triumph in Munich, currently playing in the qualifying round at Roland Garros before starting preparations for the grass season.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2Hxguwz
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