It took him almost three and half hours, but Germany’s Adrian Oetzbach toughed out his first title victory on the ITF World Tennis Tour – and is now eying a spot in the world's top 500.

The 25-year-old German overcame Danish top seed Elmer Moeller 6-7(5) 7-6(1) 7-6(4) to win a topsy-turvy contest at M15 Eindhoven – against a player ranked over 400 spots above him.

The world No. 872 squandered a 4-0 lead in the opening set tie-break but hit back to edge the next two tie-breaks for a milestone triumph.

“I just don’t know how [I did it],” said Oetzbach. "It's not that I had already given up inside, but I also lost hope that it would turn out well."

The German, who has played exclusively on the ITF World Tennis Tour this year (with his previous best result being a semi-final on home soil at M25 Marburg in July), jumps up to an ATP Challenger event next, where he hopes to continue his climb.

“At the end of the year I want to be in the top 500 in the world,” he said. “Hopefully I will have more weeks like this until the end of the year.

“I had a great week in Eindhoven,” he reflected. “It's a very nice city. There are a lot of good restaurants. The hotel was also very good. The only thing that could have been better was the weather.”

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