Strong interim result for Germany’s tennis men in Madrid: In Jan-Lennard Struff, the third German made it to the round of 16.
The 33-year-old won his third round match on Monday (May 1st, 2023) against the Serb Dusan Lajovic 6: 7 (2: 7), 6: 3, 6: 3. In the fight for the quarter-final ticket at the clay court tournament, the Warsteiner meets the winner of the duel between the American Frances Tiafoe and the Argentinian Petro Cachin.
Before Struff, Olympic champions Alexander Zverev and Daniel Altmaier had already made it into the top 16 on Sunday. Hamburg’s Zverev will meet the top seeded Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz on Tuesday, the Kempener Altmaier will face the Spaniard Jaume Munar.
Surprising triumph by Struff
Struff was actually already eliminated in the qualification, but then slipped into the main field afterwards. In the previous rounds he had already defeated the higher-ranked Lorenzo Sonego of Italy and Ben Shelton of the USA.
The Davis Cup player convinced with his powerful game against the in-form Lajovic, overall he scored more than twice as many winning shots as his opponent.
“I am extremely happy”, said Struff on Sky about that “brutal match”, which he fought his way into after losing the tie-break in the first set: “I somehow managed to put pressure on him.”
Medvedev with difficulty
Meanwhile, the number two seeded Russian Daniil Medvedev only with difficulty prevented an early exit in the 4: 6, 6: 1, 7: 5 against compatriot Alexander Shevchenko.