Jan-Lennard Struff, a 33-year-old German tennis player, has never won an ATP title. Almost a paradox for a player who is currently number 25 in the world and who last year was also number 21 in the ATP ranking. Ups and downs, light and dark, falls and rises: this is Struff, the next opponent of […]
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Jan-Lennard Struffa 33-year-old German tennis player, has never won a title Atp. Almost a paradox for a player who currently is number 25 to the world and who last year was also number 21 in the ATP ranking. Ups and downs, light and dark, falls and rises: this is Struff, the next opponent of Jannik Sinner to the round of 16 of the Masters 1000 Montecarlo. Precisely for this reason, a rival to be handled with care. Struff, giant of 183 centimetershe had lived one year ago a dream first part of the season, after yet another injury in his career had caused him to fall beyond the 150th position of the ranking. An ascent which, in addition to the final on the grass Stuttgart lost against Frances Tiafoehad reached his peak precisely on clay: in 2023 he reached the quarter-finals in Monte Carlo, going out against the winner of the tournament Andrew Rublevand had reached the final of the Masters 1000 in Madrid, defeated by Carlos Alcaraz.
In short, Struff has never raised a trophy to the sky but he is capable of large businesses. Remember his own in this Borussia Dortmund, the favorite team to which the Warstein tennis player is inextricably linked. Who knows what the quarter-finals of Champions League against theAtletico Madrid they can be at least one distraction in view of the match against Sinner. Between the two there is only a precedentvery recent: round of 32 of Indian Wells. Even in that case, as in Monte Carlo, Struff had achieved it after beating the Croatian Borna Coric. On the California hardcourt Sinner had imposed himself with a 6-3 6-4 in an hour and a quarter of play.
A month ago Sinner was satisfied with a break partially to move forward without big ones hitches. But in Monte Carlo he could face a Struff completely different. The German, as mentioned, has had a career tortured give it injuries. The most serious was perhaps the one at Right foot of 2022, which had forced him to stop for a long time and lose the majority of the points obtained on the circuit. After the great results of last spring, another physical problem – this time with the hip – compromised the second part of his 2023. And the start of 2024 was also not impressive: he never pushed further than his round of 16 of a tournament.
Struff has therefore already achieved his best performance of the year in Monte Carlo. And he succeeded with two more than convincing matches: on his debut he beat the Argentine ground-fighter Sebastien Baez (number 19 in the world) after a battle that ended with a score of 1-6 7-6 6-2. Then he also beat Coric, once again with a tie-break won and a set dominated (7-6 6-1). Struff is difficult to break, thanks to your service. Despite the height, however, the Red earth it seems to be his surface favorite, at least according to the results. A year ago he made even the best Alcaraz suffer, who prevailed in Madrid only in the third set. In short, all the bells have already been played in Sinner alarm bells of the case. The South Tyrolean already knows that he will have to improve on serve compared to his winning debut against Korda, because it will be essential not to lose never his turn at bat. And then take advantage of every little break point that might arise. As always, an easy task only on paper.
