Jan-Lennard Struff managed a surprise at the ATP tournament in Monte Carlo and reached the quarterfinals for the first time. The 32-year-old defeated the fourth in the world rankings Casper Ruud from Norway with a strong performance 6: 1, 7: 6 (8: 6).
Struff used his fourth match ball after 1:43 hours and took his opponent’s serve four times.
When the score was 5:2 in the second set, he already had the chance to win the match on his own serve, but gave up his service twice more. Struff then kept his nerve in the tie-break.
“It was brutal at the end, I got too nervous. I thought too much about winning. My coach kept calling in: ‘Gameplan, Gameplan!'” revealed Struff on “Sky”. The victory is now “something very special” for him.
In the quarterfinals against a Russian
He had already fought his way through qualification at the Masters 1000 tournament. In the round of the top eight he meets the winner of the Russian duel between Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov.
Struff has been in the round of 16 twice in his career so far at the clay court event, but had to admit defeat each time. In a Masters 1000 tournament, he is only the second time in the quarterfinals.
In the world rankings, Struff slipped to 168th place last year, but has now moved back up to 100th place. Thanks to the successes in Monte Carlo, he will now continue to climb the rankings.
