‘ I ’M NOT SETTING MYSELF ANY GOALS RANKINGS-WISE THIS YEAR. I JUST WANT TO STAY HEALTHY, WORK HARD, STAY FOCUSED AND ENJOY EVERYTHING’
and then everything will be all right.’ I always wanted to play. I always enjoyed travelling andworking hard on the Futures and Challenger tours. I think if you’re happy with that mentally it gives you a very good chance of making it.” Nevertheless, with prizemoney pitifully lowbeneath tour level, Otte admitted that for years he had struggled financially. At his last Challenger tournament in 2021, for example, he earned just 730 euros (just over £600) after going out in the second round, whichmeant he would barely have covered his costs. “My parents helpedme a lot through the last few years,” Otte said. “Finances are toughwhen you play Futures and Challengers. When you’re travelling with a coach for a whole year, you have to win these Challengers just tomake enough money to survive. But now I hope to get a bit established on the ATP tour for the next few years. When you’re playing at that level it’s easier to plan financially.” At the start of March this year Otte climbed to a career-high position at No 76 in theworld rankings, but he insisted: “I’mnot settingmyself any goals rankings-wise this year. I just want to stay healthy, work hard, stay focused and enjoy everything. If I can do that I think it should be only amatter of time beforemy ranking goes up further.” Although his progress through the rankings has been hard-fought, Otte said he could not envisage a future life without tennis. “When I finish playing I would like to stay in tennis, whether it’s as a coach or in some other capacity,” he said. “Tennis is my passion. It’s what I’ve been doing since I was four or five years old.”
On the way up Oscar Otte reached the fourth round at last year's US Open
that. I think they helpedme physically, mentally and tennis-wise to improve and to believemore inmyself.” Had there been periods earlier in his career when he had thought about quitting? “Of course you have these thoughts and there was one year when I nearly stopped, but I had been playing tennis for such a long time and I decided that I just needed to keep on trying. I always enjoyed playing, nomatter which tournament I was playing in. For me it was always about the tennis. I never thought tomyself: ‘Oh, I just need to play the Slams
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