By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday May 4, 2023
Lucky Loser Jan-Lennard Struff reached his first Masters 1000 semifinal with a stunning upset of Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Photo Source: TTV
Jan-Lennard Struff was thumped by Aslan Karatsev in the final round of qualifying at Madrid, 6-4, 6-2. Typically that would have marked the end of his week in the Spanish capital, but a late withdrawal enabled the German to take his place in the main draw.
Since then he has caught fire, and made some history in the process. Struff, who has taken out Lorenzo Sonego, 32nd seed Ben Shelton, Banja Luka champion Dusan Lajovic, Pedro Cachin and fourth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas to reach the semifinals, becomes the first lucky loser to reach the last four in Madrid history, and just the third lucky loser to reach the semifinals in Masters 1000 history.
On Thursday he powered past Stefanos Tsitispas in a hotly contested battle, saving nine of ten break points to edge the former Roland-Garros finalist, 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-3.
“It's amazing,” Struff said. “It was a very very hard battle. I knew before that I would need to perform at my best and I am very happy that I played this well today.
“He was serving so good the whole match and it was so tough to get into points,” he said.
Struff improves to 3-3 lifetime against Tsitsipas, and has now won multiple matches against Top 5 opponents in the same season for the first time. He defeated fourth-ranked Casper Ruud at Monte-Carlo.
The German converted the only break point he saw against the World No.5 to take a 3-1 lead in the final set. He never looked back, saving a break point to hold for 4-2 before closing out the win in two hours and 30 minutes.
“First set, I somehow won the first set, I felt like he was better in the first set, I got out of many tricky situations, he was 4-1 up in the tiebreak. I thought I played a very good second set, but I played a bad game at 5-all.
“And the third set, I came out aggressive again and, yeah, it was a huge win for me.”
A Bizarre Twist: Struff Faces Karatsev Next
Making matters even more improbable is the fact that the man who nearly ended Struff’s week will be his opponent in the semifinals. Karatsev stormed past Zhang Zhizhen on Thursday to become the first qualifier to reach the semifinals at Madrid since 2002, and the first qualifier to reach the last four at a Masters 1000 since 2019.
And so the pair will meet for the second time in less than two weeks – at the same event, with much higher stakes.
“I need to say, I didn't play the best tennis in that match but he made me not play good,” Struff said. “I feel like I think we need to analyze it now, and focus on the match tomorrow, and hope I can do better now.”
Top-seeded Carlos Alcaraz and 17th-seeded Borna Coric will play the top half semifinal at Madrid.