Jan-Lennard Struff continues to win and now defeats the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in three sets (7-6(5), 5-7, 6-3) in the quarterfinals of the Mutua Madrid Open. The German will meet the Russian Aslan Karatsev in the semi-finals.
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The final duel of this Mutua Madrid Open quarterfinals on the men’s side. Stefanos Tsitsipas He rose from the bottom to the top of the tournament, beating both Dominic Thiem and Sebastián Báez in three sets, only to find sensation later and easily get rid of Bernabé Zapata. by your side, Jan Lennard Struff He wanted to keep these dream weeks alive in Caja Magica, reaching this stage as Lucky Loser and killing Lorenzo Sonego, Ben Shelton, Dusan Lajovic and Pedro Cachín along the way.
Five previous clashes between the two Tsitsipas leads the record 3-2. The most recent of these duels, in Vienna 2020, where Hellene won in three sleeves. The only time they met on clay was in Barcelona 2019, and there Struff won.
A real battle in the Madrid night
The match was very interesting from the start, with Struff taking more risks in his executions, backed up with power and key at critical moments. Stefanos created the first break opportunities in the fourth game, but was unable to take advantage of them. The pressure was always on the German, who had to hold his serve to level the scores, and obviously as the games progressed, the extra tension grew and grew. A few unexpected errors gave Tsitsipas another chance to break, in this case with a set point, which Jan saved with a win to T. Without breaks, it was time for the tiebreak. And there, Struff was able to transfer the pressure to the Greek in time, and at 5-6 he forced Stefanos’ forehand error to take the first set..
Long face on the Tsitsipas bench, knowing the possibilities of the previous set and the fact that now he had to bet on a comeback against a very strong opponent with his bid. This second quarter brought a similar trend with a lot of parity with high-level scoring in all games. In a game defined purely by details, a series of errors from the German, with a double fault more inappropriate than ever, secured the Hellenic break for a 6-5 lead on the scoreboard. With great authority, Stefanos knew how to close out the set 7-5 to lead to a decisive third set.
Struff, a great semi-finalist
The Greek started the decisive set with new opportunities in a long third game, but again could not finish. Stefanos used the pass and volley resource a lot, but without too many returns. For his part, Struff was still very solid from the starting line, and after two brilliant backhand winners, he managed to break into his own advantage to go 3-1 up on the scoreboard, which was an important advantage with the game in mind. The Greek got a break point at 2-4, but again the Teutonic saved him with a wonderful reverse palm point. Jan-Lennard gave himself a chance to pass into the game, but Stefanos wanted to continue the fight. Finally, Struff decided the story with a decisive 6-3in his second match, and he pounced on a serve and a volley in this final game.
