Week 34 ATP pick
Right-handed, currently No. 145 in the ATP singles rankings — a career high.
Career-High Rank
No. 145
SINGLES
Current Rank
No. 162
28 SEP 2026
Age
23
B. 5 SEP 2003
RTT Pick
Wk 34
RISING STAR
Country
🇩🇪 Germany
Tour
ATP singles
Plays
Right-handed
Age
22
Born
5 September 2003
Current Rank
No. 162
Career High
No. 145
Career W–L
244–163
2026 W–L
46–23
The Duisburg-born 22-year-old is the rare top-150 player with no junior pedigree at all: he played handball until 14, was only around ninth in Germany in his own birth-year, ran no international junior calendar, and completed state-certified tennis-instructor training after school. Winning the 2022 ITF Future in Trier earned him a place in the German federation's perspective program, where he now trains under DTB coach Jan Velthuis alongside his father Martin. He opened 2026 ranked No. 289 and kept banging on the door: Challenger finals in Koblenz (two match points against Pavel Kotov), Split, and July's Dutch Open, which carried him into the top 200 for the first time.
"I'm just happy. There are so many emotions involved" — after his maiden Challenger title in Hagen; Tennis TourTalk, 9 August 2026
Final number four was the charm — and it came ~70 km from home. At the Platzmann Open (Challenger 100, clay) in Hagen, in front of a sold-out crowd, he beat Thiago Monteiro, Chun-hsin Tseng, longtime training partner Henri Squire in an all-German quarterfinal, and third seed Zsombor Piros, then closed out Jérôme Kym 6–4, 7–6(4) for his first Challenger trophy, hitting a tournament-best 35 aces along the way. The 100 points fired him from No. 185 to a career-high No. 145 — roughly 144 spots up on the season — with US Open qualifying the next stop on the runway.
"I stayed cool the whole time, even when I was a break down"
ON THE HAGEN FINAL VS KYM · TENNIS TOURTALK, AUG 2026"It feels very good. I worked hard for this win today."
AFTER THE SEMIFINAL WIN OVER PIROS · TENNIS TOURTALK, AUG 2026