Jan-Lennard Struff is doing a special tour over the tennis facility of the All England Club. Starting with 8th place, where he ran over on the grass in the first round, via Court 18, where he even had to compete twice, he will arrive at the Center Court on Friday.
The neat stadium gate is less open because of his opponent, the two-time Wimbledon champion and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz. The 35 -year -old Germans can not care, but he gets a deserved place for his old tennis days with a suitable companion. “It’s something special, but it will be a brutally difficult match,” said Struff, after defeating the Canadian Félix Auger-Aliasseime 3: 6, 7: 6 (11: 9), 6: 3, 6: 4 on Thursday.
“Now Alcaraz, horny!”
Once, Struff was allowed to play on the main square on Church Road. In 2018, after three sentences, he lost to the later tournament winner Roger Federer. “Now Alcaraz, horny,” was Struff’s first exclamation on Thursday afternoon after securing the encounter with the world ranking second from Spain.
At the Australian Open in January, the Warsteiner had lost in four sets against the Auger-Al. The victory was important for him, said the German Davis Cup professional, who: “I haven’t won two more in a row.”
After the first round of Alexander Zverev and Daniel Altmaier, Struff is the last remaining person of the German tennis men. The fact that the Warsteiner reached the third Wimbledon round for the fourth time was hardly expected after the more poor than right-wing season. He had won only five matches and crashed to position 125 at the beginning of the year after world rankings 42 before he came to London. Also with the German rasp tournaments in Stuttgart and Halle, he had not been able to use his wildcards well. In Wimbledon, Struff had planned from the start to “check off things that were not so good and have a new orientation”. He managed to do twice: “It only helps victories, that is good.”
Force and resistance
On Thursday afternoon, the Warsteiner continued as he ended the match against number 28 in the world at dusk on Wednesday. If he had fended off four set balls in the tiebreak the day before with force and courage, he also knew how to convince in the other sentences with force and resistance. The German spectators on Court 18 were loudly enjoying Struff’s coolness in crucial situations. With their “Let’s Go Struffi” calls, they made the English viewers appear rather smawy.
After Struff had fended off break balls from Auger-Alicassime in three sets in three serve games, Struff also kept his nerve at the end. He converted his second match ball after 3:11 hours of play and thus secured access to the Center Court.
As soon as he stands on the pitch with Alcaraz, Jan-Lennard Struff knows what to do: “Give the gas, play forward, play courageously.” The Spaniard is prepared for it: on Wednesday he had been seen on the court for quite a while and observed what his 13 -year -old opponent still had.
