Jan-Lennard Struff has reached the quarter-finals of the tennis tournament in Almaty/Kazakhstan after a surprising victory over top-seeded Russian Karen Khachanov.
The 35-year-old from Warstein defeated the tenth in the world rankings and defending champion 4:6, 7:6 (7:5), 6:3, it was his first win over a top 10 player since April 2023. In the next round, Struff will face Frenchman Corentin Moutet (No. 8).
Against Khachanov (29), the German Davis Cup player proved that he can still be a dangerous opponent even for the top players. Struff, who recently tried in vain to collect world ranking points on the Challenger Tour, is only in 98th place in the ranking and is fighting for direct qualification for the Australian Open 2026.
The points for reaching the quarter-finals in Almaty help, but now another difficult task awaits Struff: He has lost the two previous duels against Moutet (26), the last of which took place in Metz in 2024 on an indoor hard court – similar to the court on which the game is played in Almaty. But the victory over Khachanov, his second in the fifth duel, should give Struff self-confidence.
Especially when it came to his own serve, he hardly exposed himself. He only lost the first game and then chased the break in vain. In the second set he pulled away in the tiebreak and used the momentum at the beginning of the decisive round to get his first break of the game. Struff didn’t let the advantage be taken away from him and converted his fourth match point to victory after 2:19 hours.