Passport to Paris After years of trying to battle through qualifying at the French Open, Oscar Otte knows his place in the main draw at Roland Garros this spring should be secure. e 28-year-old German tells Paul Newman how he always believed he couldmake the world’s top 100 I f you see a tennis player wandering around Paris looking a little bewildered during the qualifying tournament for this year’s French Open, it might just be Oscar Otte. Ever since It has been a long journey. Otte did not break into the world’s top 400 until he was 23, did not make his debut on the main tour until he was 25 and failed in his first 13 attempts to qualify at Grand Slam tournaments. Even when he finally made the world’s top 200 five years ago he struggled to progress beyond the
2016 Otte has spent the last week of May each year attempting to qualify for Roland Garros, but as the competition gets under way this spring the 28-year-old German might be wondering quite what to do with himself. Twelve years after taking the first tentative steps of his professional career, the Cologne native finally has a high enough world ranking to earn direct entry into the main draw at Grand Slam tournaments without having to go through qualifying.
Challenger tour, until his fortunes at last took a turn for the better last summer. Having finally qualified for a Grand Slam tournament at last year’s FrenchOpen, Otte nearly pulled off one of the shocks of the first roundwhen he took the opening two sets against Alexander Zverev before his fellow German recovered. AtWimbledonOtte
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