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Munich (dpa) - Philipp Kohlschreiber has won the ATP tournament in Munich three times, he was in the final three more times - now the record champion has already been eliminated in the first round.
The veteran from Augsburg lost his opening match against compatriot Dominik Koepfer 6: 4, 4: 6, 3: 6.
After 2:24 minutes, the 37-year-old was sealed, he shuffled off the empty center court.
Kohlschreiber missed a possible encouragement in his tennis autumn: he had not won a game on the ATP tour for more than a year, but under the corona conditions he only contested a few events such as the US Open and the French Open.
This season, two matches at a Challenger tournament in Serbia were the only appearances of Kohlschreiber, who has now slipped to 114th place in the world.
The organizers of the BMW Open had invited him with a wildcard.
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Due to the defeat against Koepfer, who was 54th in the world ranking list, who was born in Furtwangen, Kohlschreiber missed a duel with Davis Cup professional Jan-Lennard Struff.
He had previously defeated the Slovak Andrej Martin 6: 4, 6: 3 and was actually looking forward to an encounter with his long-term team-mate.
For Struff, who was seeded at number seven, it was a favorite success.
"Everything wasn't perfect in the match," he said afterwards.
"But I thought it was okay for the first round."
Two years ago the Warsteiner was eliminated in the first game at the BMW Open, now he recorded what he saw as a “solid victory” in 76 minutes.
The 31-year-old reached the semi-finals in Munich in 2014, and made it to the quarter-finals in 2017 and 2018.
On the following day, the top seeded Alexander Zverev will also start in the tournament.
After a bye in round one, the sixth in the world rankings will face Ricardas Berankis from Lithuania in the round of 16.
After a protracted elbow injury and intensive treatments, it will become clear how fit the 24-year-old Monegasse is.
"It gets better every day," he hopes.
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210427-99-375383 / 4
BMW Open