Jan-Lennard Struff reached the second round at the ATP tournament in Halle/East Westphalia. At the beginning he won against the Russian Roman Safiullin with 6:1 and 7:6 (7:4).
The tournament victory at the grass tournament in Stuttgart, which was missed by a hair’s breadth, did not throw Warsteiner Jan-Lennard Struff off track. On Wednesday, at the next German tournament on grass in Halle/East Westphalia, he once again demonstrated his current strong form, which has taken him to 21st place in the world rankings.
First break for Struff after a tough start
After two very long opening games, which the server won in each case, Struff managed a break against Safiullin in the third game. Struff didn’t show his usual strong service game against the strong Russian, but was mostly able to rely on the service in the tricky situations.
Struff proved that he came from Stuttgart with a large portion of self-confidence with a second serve, which he served at more than 200 kilometers per hour. He also impressed on the return and, after two more breaks, secured the first round 6-1.
Catching up in the second round with a happy ending
In the second round, Safiullin recovered well from the six game losses in a row, served through and made an early break to make it 2-1. But the subsequent 1:3 didn’t unsettle the Warsteiner either – he took the Russian’s serve to make it 3:3 and brought his own through to the tie-break.
Struff started there with a double fault and two more points for Safiullin, but stayed in the game. After the 2: 4 Struff put his backhand return long on the line to 3: 4 and fought for the first lead in the tie-break with two strong serves. Another strong backhand gave him two match balls, the first of which he used to make it 7:6.
