Jan-Lennard Struff surprised at the Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid with an impressive winning streak that brought him to the final against Carlos Alcaraz.
After winning the semifinals against the Russian Aslan Karatsev, the 33-year-old tennis pro from Warstein will face Carlos Alcaraz in the final in Madrid. Struff made it into the final of a tennis tournament in the second highest category for the first time – and continued his rise after a rather messed up previous season.
Struff after “mad week” in the final against Alcaraz
While the Warsteiner was still 150th in the world rankings at the end of 2022, he is now scratching the top 20 – also because of the fairytale run at the top ATP tournament in Madrid. There, the entry of the Davis Cup player into the final against Spain’s young star Alcaraz was a sensation. “They were very intense days. It’s a crazy week,” Struff reported on the Sky TV channel.
Because the long-injured Olympic champion Alexander Zverev will fall out of the top 20 for the first time since April 2017 after his round of 16 lesson against Alcaraz (1: 6, 2: 6), Struff could even become the new number 1 in German tennis.
Kohlmann on Struff: “The journey is not over yet”
Thanks to the so far unique promotion of the lucky loser, who was actually eliminated in the qualification, to the finalist, he was already assured of prize money of more than half a million euros and the leap to 28th place in the world rankings. Struff has never been so highly ranked.
“There are many things to suggest that the journey is not over yet,” said Davis Cup captain Michael Kohlmann of the German Press Agency. He also gives Struff good chances at the French Open from May 28th: ”He’s on a wave of success and dares to win against the really big ones. I wish him that he can transport that to Paris.” Because Struff missed the French Open last year due to a toe injury, he does not have to defend any world ranking points at the Grand Slam tournament on sand.
Struff impressively proved in Madrid and also when he reached the quarter-finals in Monte Carlo that he can be expected again. The three-set victory in the semi-finals in Madrid against the Russian Aslan Karazew, against whom Struff had lost in qualification, was “a monster energy performance”, said his coach Marvin Netuschil. And former tennis star Boris Becker called the Warsteiner “a machine”.
Struff fell out of the top 100 in the ATP ranking last year
In the previous year, this machine had stalled. The protracted toe injury unsettled Struff and pushed him out of the top 100 in the world rankings. But already at the end of the year Struff showed increasing form, especially the victory in the Davis Cup quarterfinals against the Canadian top player Denis Shapovalov gave the German “an incredible boost”, as team boss Kohlmann revealed. The flight of fancy does not come as a complete surprise to him: “Struffi has always had great potential.”
At the end of August 2020, Struff was already 29th in the world before the big breakthrough. He should definitely succeed this time. The recovery comes late, but not too late. “The last few years are slowly approaching, although I’m not even thinking about quitting,” the 33-year-old told WDR at the beginning of the year. His main motivation is “the love of the game”, but he also admitted: “You have the most fun when you win more and are higher in the world rankings.”