Strong start for the German tennis professionals at the US Open: The veterans Philipp Kohlschreiber and Peter Gojowczyk made an exclamation mark on the first day of the Grand Slam tournament.
Kohlschreiber (37) fought his way back against Marin Cilic, tournament winner of 2014, after a 2-0 set deficit and benefited from 6: 7 (4: 7), 6: 7 (3: 7), 6: 2, 6 : 1, 2: 0 from a task by the Croatian.
The Munich Gojowczyk (32) had already defeated the Frenchman Ugo Humbert, who was in 23rd position, with 1: 6, 6: 1, 6: 2, 5: 7, 6: 4 and was in the second for the third time after 2013 and 2014 Drafted round of New York.
Both offered close matches with their opponents and were not discouraged by setbacks in the meantime.
Kohlschreiber stayed focused in the fourth set against the increasingly physically ailing Cilic and now faces Michail Kukuschkin from Kazakhstan or the Spaniard Pablo Andujar.
Most recently, the former round of 16 at the US Open failed twice in a row in the first round.
Gojowczyk, number 141 in the world rankings, had fought his way into the main field through qualification and will now face the Serbian Dusan Lajovic. In the fifth set he kept his nerve, brought the match to an end after 2:57 hours and thus earned the chance to move into the third round of a major for the first time in his career.