Warsteiner Jan-Lennard Struff narrowly lost the high-class final at the ATP lawn tournament in Stuttgart against the American Frances Tiafoe. He kept believing in his strength: “I’m very confident that I’ll win a title at some point.”
Tennis pro Struff wants to quickly forget the “emptiness” after missing the first ATP title and take momentum from his dramatically lost final in Stuttgart for the next few weeks. “The past has shown that I can get up again. That will happen again,” said the 33-year-old after the 6: 4, 6: 7 (1: 7), 6: 7 (8: 10) against the new one World number tenth Frances Tiafoe.
Third final defeat to Munich and Madrid
Struff had a match point in the tie-break of the third set of the final on Sunday, which the American Tiafoe fended off on his own serve. Despite a strong performance, the Sauerland also lost his third ATP final after Madrid six weeks ago and Munich 2021.
“It was crazy in the end. It was pure drama,” said Struff and was disappointed at the press conference: “The last few minutes were just empty.”
The Warsteiner was happy about the great encouragement, not only from the approximately 5,000 spectators on the Center Court. “Many encouraging messages” had arrived, he said “gratefully” for that, even if he admitted: “At first you don’t want to read them.”
Struff higher than ever in the world rankings
Despite all the disappointment, Struff was also proud of his next successful week. “I played the final in Stuttgart, it’s absolutely great. I’ll take that with me. The season has been absolutely great so far,” said the Sauerland: “How I’ve often acted very bravely in tight situations – that’s something I’ll take with me can. Which is really positive for the next few weeks.”
Since Monday, Struff has been number 21 in the world, higher than ever before and the best German tennis professional ahead of Alexander Zverev from Hamburg. Like Zverev, Struff will play in Halle / Westphalia in the new week. “I’ll keep stepping on the gas, I’ll keep working and then we’ll see what else I can achieve,” said Struff.
