Tennis professional Jan-Lennard Struff bitterly missed out on an important success at the ATP tournament in Athens.
The 35-year-old lost in the first main round to fifth-seeded Alexandre Müller from France. It was 3:6, 6:2, 6:7 (6:8) after a hard-fought game from the German’s point of view, who even missed a match point and was already leading 4-0 in the tiebreak.
Struff had to fight his way into the main draw in Athens through qualification. Against the world number 531. He even gave a sentence to Henry Bernet (Switzerland). After a very disappointing season, the Warsteiner recently slipped to 101st place in the world rankings – a further drop in the ranking in the final phase of the tennis year would jeopardize Struff’s direct qualification for the main draw at the Australian Open at the start of the new season in January.
After Struff’s retirement, Yannick Hanfmann is the last remaining German in the field. He will face 17-year-old Bulgarian wild card player Ivan Ivanov on Tuesday.