Four wins in four days
Mees Rottgering came through qualifying. He is now in the last 16 of an ATP 250 event, and he has beaten two top-100 players to get there.
The Dutchman knocked out world No. 58 Tomas Machac 6-2, 7-6(1) at the Wake Forest Tennis Complex on Tuesday evening, the biggest win of his young professional career. Machac climbed as high as No. 20 in the world earlier in his career. Rottgering handled him in straight sets on his tournament debut.
That made it four matches won in four days in Winston-Salem.
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The serve decided it
Rottgering struck eight aces to Machac’s five and committed one double fault against seven. He won 80 percent of his first-serve points, taking 35 of 44, and 46 percent behind the second serve. Machac managed 69 and 32 percent on the same counts.
The overall numbers ran the same way. Rottgering claimed 87 of the 155 points played, 56 percent of the total. He won 47 of 70 service points and converted 40 of 85 return points.
He broke Machac twice in the opening set and carried that pressure into the second. The set stayed on serve until the breaker, where Rottgering took seven of the eight points and closed it out.
Where he came from
Rottgering opened qualifying with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Hunter Heck, then beat Hugo Grenier 6-4, 6-1. His first career ATP Tour main-draw win arrived on Monday against world No. 77 Jan Choinski, 7-5, 2-6, 6-4.
He arrives in Winston-Salem off a freshman season at Wake Forest that produced an 18-3 singles record, eight ranked wins and a national ranking of No. 24. He was named ACC Freshman of the Year and ACC Tournament MVP while helping the Demon Deacons take both the conference regular-season and tournament titles. Fourth seed Arthur Fery, ranked No. 37, waits in the round of 16 on Wednesday.
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