Jan-Lennard Struff caused a surprise at the French Open, Daniel Altmaier couldn’t prevent a bitter exit: The 36-year-old Warsteiner Struff eliminated the world number ten Alexander Bublik from Kazakhstan 7:5, 6:7 (6:8), 6:4, 7:5 on Tuesday and celebrated moving into the second round after a strong performance.
Altmaier then lost to world number six Félix Auger-Aliassime from Canada 6:4, 4:6, 6:4, 1:6, 6:7 (7:10) in a thriller lasting 4:16 hours of play.
Struff was happy after his success. “That was a tough match. There were difficult conditions,” he said at Eurosport: “Outstanding support here on the court, there were so many Germans there. Simply outstanding.” Eurosport expert Boris Becker celebrated a “very important victory for our man. It was time again for him to beat a player like that.” After Alexander Zverev, Struff is the second German participant to clear his opening hurdle in the men’s field.
In 2019 and 2021 he reached the round of 16 in Paris. Things didn’t go so well recently; Struff came to the top event without much self-confidence after a first-round exit in Hamburg. Against Bublik, who reached the quarter-finals in Paris last year, he still worked hard on his success. In 2024 he had already clearly beaten him in the second round in Paris – and was now celebrating again.
Altmaier, on the other hand, missed a good chance. He was already 4-1 ahead in the fifth set of the highly competitive duel, but was unable to bring the lead to the finish. “He was missing that little bit,” said Becker.
