WHAT HAPPENED: Oscar Otte somersaulted to the court, ripped off his hat, made goggles with his hands, wiggled his tongue, and finally pirouetted in the air after thundering down an ace to beat Andreas Seppi, 6-3, 6-4, 2-6, 7-5. You can’t blame the guy for not having practiced a victory celebration. Ranked No. 140 in the world, he probably didn’t see a second-week showing in his first US Open main draw in the cards.
The spontaneous bit of crazy is part of Otte’s appeal. The 28-year-old German has a fun, loose personality on court. At Wimbledon this year, he became a GIF after slipping on Centre Court and pretending to take a puff of the surface (get it?) before standing up.
In New York, Otte’s tennis has been the story. He qualified under dramatic circumstances—winning two final-set tiebreaks and making two trips to the garbage can in the brutal heat—and has now made a Cinderella run to the Round of 16.
Otte didn’t show any nerves or fatigue at the start of the match. In fact, he liked the match-up.
“I know Seppi from playing club matches back in Germany,” Otte said. “I knew how he plays. I think it was similar to the [Dennis] Kudla match [Otte’s second-rounder in New York]. I knew what was going to happen and I just tried to focus a lot on my serve.”
In the first set, one of every three serves didn’t come back as he nailed 10 aces and avoided double faults. He also won more of the long rallies, including points that went 10, 15, 18, and 19 shots. In the final three games, Otte took 12 of 13 points. And he was just serving at 42 percent.
The second set was the same story. Seppi donated errors galore 31 by the middle of the second set, compared to 22 in his five-set win in the first round and 30 over four sets in the second round. Otte increased the percentage to 78% and held at love twice to close out the set.
Seppi cleaned up his game considerably in the third set, showing off the ball-striking that has kept him in Grand Slam main draws for an incredible 16 straight years. Meanwhile, Otte’s forehand went away and he had only two winners in the set, both of them aces. He made his eighth unforced error off that side to drop the set.
“The court was much slower, so I had to adapt a little bit,” Otte said.
The fourth set was a dogfight, as both men upped their levels. Otte won a 32-shot rally in the third game with incredible defense, scrambling along the baseline as Seppi closed in and eventually running down a drop shot and whipping a forehand crosscourt for a winner.
From then, Otte kept the pressure on. With Seppi serving at 5-5, he chased down an overhead, got the ball low to Seppi’s feet, and ran down the ensuing drop volley for a passing shot. On the next point, he stretched out for a first-serve return and quickly recovered for Seppi’s next shot, a midcourt forehand that went long.
A few more big serves and forehands later, Otte was celebrating. He finished with an 82% first-serve percentage, 15 aces and 34 winners.
WHAT IT MEANS: It means the world to Otte, who had won only a single Grand Slam main-draw match in his career before the US Open. That was at Wimbledon this year when he beat Arthur Rinderknech in a fifth-set tiebreak in the first round.
After spending the last three years ranked between 150 and 200 and playing Challengers, Otte was close to a career breakthrough twice this summer. First, he qualified for a Grand Slam for the first time in 14 attempts. He had played main-draw majors before as a lucky loser, even getting to face Roger Federer once. But he didn’t earn his way out of qualifying until this year’s French Open. Then he had a two-set-to-love lead on Alexander Zverev in the first round before losing in five.
He knocked on the door a few weeks later at Wimbledon. Following the Rinderknech win, he lost to Andy Murray in five sets on Centre Court.
His next opponent is No. 6 seed and 2019 US Open finalist Matteo Berrettini, who needed five sets to get past world No. 53 Ilya Ivashka. Berrettini won their only match, at the 2018 French Open.
Otte might not have a lot of Slam experience, but he has been competing around long enough to not be awed by these big moments.
“I still remember back couple of years ago when the matches were smaller, playing futures or challengers or qualies. I was completely different, going nuts on court,” he said. “Now, a little bit more mature, this helps a lot. You grow as a person, not just as a tennis player.”
MATCH POINT: Otte has three match wins in ATP World Tour events and now five match wins at Grand Slams.
