Daniel Altmaier causes a sensation in Roland-Garros and throws out fellow favorite Jannik Sinner

“For me and my career, the win means a lot, I’ve been waiting for it for a long time. I want to show myself on this big stage, it’s phenomenally successful,” explained Daniel Altmaier in an exclusive interview with Eurosport.

After five hours and 26 minutes the time had come: Altmaier used his fifth match point – with an ace.

“A mega achievement. It was a huge hurdle, also emotionally. To beat such a player with all these ups and downs is a very big achievement,” said the former Davis Cup winner Carl Uwe Steeb at Eurosport.

Altmaier, who celebrated his second career win over a top ten player, is now hoping to repeat his Paris 2020 success story. At that time he had advanced to the round of 16.

“I thought about just playing every point for myself, ignoring everything else,” said Altmaier with regard to the two match balls that he had to fend off in the fourth set.

In the fifth round it came to the thriller. Altmaier took a 5:3 lead thanks to a break, but had to let Sinner get back to 5:5.

After the 24-year-old had taken the game from the Italian to 6: 5, he needed five match points on his own serve to make the sensation perfect.

Altmaier: “We still have a lot to do”

“We have such a strong team and this success is a team effort,” said Altmaier after the game. The man from Kempen had tears in his eyes and was visibly touched by the success. Grigor Dimitrov, who defeated Emil Ruusuvuori 7:6 (7:4), 6:3, 6:4, is now waiting in the third round.

Altmaier is aiming for nothing less than the next coup. The win against Sinner was “a big step in my career,” said the 24-year-old at Eurosport, but: “We still have a lot to do!”