Things can change very quickly in tennis, which is something that this ATP player knows all about.
The year 2022 was a monumental year in the sport, starting off with Rafael Nadal’s heroic effort to win the Australian Open.
It also saw the emergence of another Spanish talent, as Carlos Alcaraz won his first major title at the US Open.
While these two players remain as household names, another ATP player who was seen as a dark horse for Wimbledon has suffered a dramatic fall since then.
Photo by Sebastian Widmann/Getty Images for BMW Oscar Otte: The ATP player who was called a ‘dark horse’ for Wimbledon in 2022
That player is German Oscar Otte, who really impressed during the 2022 grass court season.
Otte began the grass court season that year as the world number 61, and had only reached one ATP semifinal before.
That all changed very quickly, as Otte beat the likes of Denis Shapovalov and Karen Khachanov to reach back-to-back grass court semifinals in Stuttgart and Halle.
This enabled Otte to secure a late seeded spot at Wimbledon that year, and former British tennis player turned commentator Nick Lester named the German as a dark horse for The Championships.
Lester told Wimbledon.com in 2022, “The German has been in great form over the summer with back-to-back grass court semi-finals and his serve and volley game is not what many players are used to seeing.”
Otte somewhat lived up to that expectation, as he reached the third round of Wimbledon for the first time before losing to sixth seed Alcaraz.
Despite this defeat, it was a hugely successful grass court season for Otte, but he was unable to continue his momentum from this run.
What has happened to Oscar Otte since then?
After reaching the third round of Wimbledon in 2022, Otte’s life has been taken over by constant injury troubles.
Otte underwent an arthroscopy on the inner meniscus of his left knee straight after Wimbledon that year, and he has only won one more Grand Slam match since then.
That win came at Wimbledon the following year, but once again The Championships resulted in Otte requiring knee surgery.
Unfortunately for Otte there was another surgery to come, as he revealed at the end of last year that he had undergone a procedure on his right foot.
Otte has not played an ATP Tour main draw match since the Halle Open in 2024, and has only played lower-level ITF matches in 2025.
As a result, the former world number 36 is now ranked all the way down at world number 991, with Otte now looking far from the player who was called a Wimbledon dark horse in 2022.