17-year-old will play his first ATP Tour event on home soil as a wild card in Munich

Few 17-year-old’s have enjoyed a six-month period quite like the one Justin Engel has just experienced.

In October, the #NextGenATP German became the first player born in 2007 or later to win an ATP Tour match when he defeated Coleman Wong in Almaty. Since then, he has hired a former Top 20 player as his coach, met his tennis idol, and mixed it with one of German football’s most famous names. This week in Munich, Engel is preparing for another novel experience: His first tour-level event on home soil, the 2025 BMW Open by Bitpanda.

“It's totally exciting. I mean, I'm almost at home here,” said Engel, who hails from Nuremburg, just 170km north of Munich. “A lot of people know me here in Munich, and I also train in the tennis base Oberhaching here, so I’m really excited to play here.

“I was here [at the tournament] when I was eight or nine years old, and I watched [Gael] Monfils. It's really funny, now I'm here with him [at the same event]. It's really exciting to do this step in my career and let's see how it goes.”

In Engel’s player box for his first-round match against Fabian Marozsan, which is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, will be coach Philipp Kohlschreiber. The former World No. 16 and eight-time ATP Tour champion joined the teenager’s team shortly after his historic win in Almaty. Kohlschreiber is a record three-time champion in Munich, a fact that Engel admits has come up in conversation.

“Of course he talks about it. That is like his ‘biggest flex’,” joked the World No. 347. “It's really exciting to have this kind of player, now coach, in my team. Let's hope he can give me some tips on how to win some matches here.”

Engel had to adjust to increased media attention, especially in his home country, after his historic victory against Wong. From an on-court perspective, however, the teenager says he learned as much from his second-round loss to Francisco Cerundolo in Kazakhstan as he did from his opening-round win.

“After the first match, I knew I have the potential to really play at this level,” he said. “Also when I lost against Cerundolo, I saw, ‘Okay, it's really physical, a really mental game. They're really fast.’ So in the past couple of months, I trained my legs a lot and did everything fitness, so I also move towards this physical level that they play [on the ATP Tour].”

It All Adds Up

Engel has enjoyed meetings with two sporting superstars since his run in Almaty. First, he met the manager of his hometown football club FC Nuremberg, Miroslav Klose, the former Germany striker who still holds the record for the most goals scored at FIFA World Cups. Then in early 2025, he travelled to Mallorca to train at the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar, where he met his tennis idol Rafael Nadal for the first time.

“I was [at the academy] for the first time when I was like six or seven. I don't know, I don't remember,” said Engel. “But this was the first time I trained there and I also saw Rafa. He greeted me and we talked a little bit. I was really excited to see him. I had never even seen him before, only on the TV.”

Before that meeting with former World No. 1 Nadal, Engel enjoyed an early on-court success for 2025 in January, when he won an ITF World Tennis Tour event in Cadolzburg, Germany. He is currently 25th in the PIF ATP Live Race To Jeddah, but will rise to 11th if he defeats Marozsan on Tuesday, and he lists qualifying for the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF as one of his biggest short-term goals.

“I will try my best to play Next Gen this year,” said Engel of the 20-and-under season-ending event. “I saw on TV how special this event is. [The stadium] looks unbelievably good.”