Jan-Lennard Struff was the third German tennis player to reach the round of 16 at the ATP tournament in Madrid. In his third round match on Monday, the 33-year-old deservedly prevailed against the Serb Dusan Lajovic 6: 7 (2: 7), 6: 3, 6: 3. In the fight for the quarter-final ticket at the clay court tournament, Warsteiner meets Argentinian Petro Cachin.
Before Struff, Olympic champions Alexander Zverev and Daniel Altmaier had already made it into the top 16 on Sunday. Zverev had no trouble 6: 1, 6: 0 in the third round match against the overwhelmed French qualifier Hugo Grenier and converted his first match point after just 56 minutes. In the evening Daniel Altmaier followed through the 7:6 (7:3), 6:3 in the German duel against qualifier Yannick Hanfmann. Both made it into the top 32 in a Masters 1000 tournament for the first time in their careers.
In the match for the quarterfinals, Zverev meets the top seeded Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, who prevailed against the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrow 6: 2, 7: 5. “The next match will be a very important one. It will be a huge test – and I’m looking forward to it too,” said Zverev. The 24-year-old Altmaier plays against the Spaniard Jaume Munar in the round of 16.
Struff was actually already eliminated in the qualification, but then slipped into the main field afterwards. In the previous rounds he had already defeated the higher-ranked Lorenzo Sonego of Italy and Ben Shelton of the USA. The Davis Cup player convinced with his powerful game against the in-form Lajovic, overall he scored more than twice as many winning shots as his opponent. “I’m extremely happy,” said Struff about the “brutal match” in which he fought back after losing the tie-break in the first set: “I somehow managed to put him under pressure.”
Meanwhile, the number two seeded Russian Daniil Medvedev only with difficulty prevented an early exit in the 4: 6, 6: 1, 7: 5 against compatriot Alexander Shevchenko.
