The round of 16 is complete at the 30. TERRA WORTMANN OPEN; Jan-Lennard Struff is the last player to have booked his ticket for the second round. The local hero, who comes from Warstein and played for ‘Blau-Weiss Halle’ in the Federal league, defeated Roman Safiullin 6:1 and 7:6(4). His next opponent will be Alexander Bublik from Casachstan on Thursday.
It was an emotional come back for Struff to the OWL arena which was already filled nicely for the first match of the day. “Thank you for the support”, 33 year-old Struff said after the match. “It means a lot to me to play here”. You could tell that the world’s no. 21 – Alexander Zverev is no. 22 – likes the location here in Halle. And that he is still on a high from reaching the finals in the grass tournament in Stuttgart in the week before coming to Halle. In Stuttgart he lost unluckily in the tiebreak to Frances Tiafoe.
Only in his first service Struff had to fend off a break point, otherwise he dominated Safiullin, who played his first match on grass on ATP tour level. He took the 25 year-olds service three times, the man of the hour of Germany’s man’s tennis converted the first set point 6:1. It didn’t keep up that easy, though. Safiullin, ranking at 99, got stronger and got an early break 2:1. But Struff kept up and broke back 3:3.
Both had no problems getting their service through so the tiebreak had to decide. There the debutant in Halle went into the lead quickly 3:0 and 4:2 – and didn’t score another point from then on. A strong return brought Struff back into the match; with a great backhand along the line he was rewarded with his first match point. He used this straight away to make it 7:4 and to win the match.
The victory means that Stuff’s balance at the TERRA WORTMANN OPEN has become slightly better. It was his third match win of 10 participations in Halle. This also means he has lost nine times and has been defeated seven times already in the first round. These times are over though. Struff has become a grass player, who is in excellent form this year, too. Why should he not also be a candidate for winning the tournament? He deserves it after three losses in finals (Munich 2021, Madrid 2023 and Stuttgart 2023) on his sheet.
