ATP Masters Madrid: Jan-Lennard Struff surprisingly throws out Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals

“It was an incredible match. I had a chance, I took it,” said Jan-Lennard Struff after his coup in an interview with “Sky”.

Curious: In qualifying, the veteran had lost against his semi-final opponent Aslan Karatsev. While the Russian came into the main draw as a qualifier, the Westphalian slipped into the main draw as a so-called lucky loser. Now the two professionals will face each other again on Friday from 8:00 p.m. in the fight for a place in the final.

Struff played with confidence against the two-time Grand Slam finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas, he didn’t let his opponent’s three breakballs and a 1: 4 in the tie-break disturb him in the first set.

With his courageous, variable game, the veteran kept the second set open for a long time.

Struff uses second match point against Tsitsipas

And he didn’t collapse in the decision-making process either – on the contrary: Struff got the Greek’s serve for the first time in the match to make it 3-1 and converted his second match ball after 2:30 hours.

On Wednesday, Daniel Altmaier (Kempen), who had also surprisingly made it into the top eight in the Caja Mágica, was eliminated.

Struff, who was number 29 in the world almost three years ago, had to wait a long time for such a sense of achievement.

Struff returns to the top 40

The return to the top of the world was difficult. In March 2022 he broke his toe in Miami, the Warsteiner missed the entire clay court season and slipped far down the world rankings.

Now he’s already assured of a return to the top 40.

(SID)