Philipp Kohlschreiber has a testing second round against Spain’s Albert Montanes in Kitzbuhel.
It’s doubtful that Kohlschreiber has ever competed against someone 16 years older than him before but that was the case on day one at the Cup Kitzbuhel as he found himself facing 1995 French Open champion Thomas Muster. At the age of 43, Muster still loves competing and he’s been trying to mix it on the challenger tour this year, albeit with little success.
Muster won this title way back in 1993 but he was hopefully outclassed 6-3, 6-0 by a ruthless Kohlschreiber who broke serve six times.
Kohlschreiber won the Halle title in June but he has struggled on clay this year, losing both his matches in Germany’s one-sided Davis Cup defeat against France last month. This tournament provides his last opportunity to rack up some points on the dirt before the tour moves exclusively to hard courts for another month.
Montanes enjoyed his best ever season on tour in 2010, winning titles in Estoril and Stuttgart but he has not come close to replicating that success this year. He reached the fourth round of the French Open but his results in the smaller events have been very below par.
They played just a couple of weeks ago in Hamburg with Montanes retiring at 6-1, 3-2 down.
