Lucky Loser Struff makes history by reaching Madrid final

Eight days after they met in the second round of qualifying at Madrid, Jan-Lennard Struff took his revenge on Aslan Karatsev to earn the biggest win of his career. The German lucky loser edged the Russian qualifier 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to move into the final of the Madrid Masters at the Caja Magica on Friday evening.

33-year-old Struff, ranked No 65, becomes the first lucky loser to ever reach the final of a Masters 1000 event. He will face Carlos Alcaraz in Sunday’s final.

“It’s amazing,” Struff said on court after completing his fifth consecutive three-set win in Madrid.

The German is into his second career final, and it is by far the biggest of his career. “I didn’t think about this before, I played one final in Munich with no crowds because it was COVID,” Struff said. “Now, here, amazing crowds. I think on Sunday will also be a very good crowd, maybe not all rooting for me but it’s fine – I’m very happy to reach the final and very happy with the win.”

Khachanov struggled with a left thigh issue

After taking the opening set, Karatsev’s fatigue settled in as the Russian struggled with his a left thigh issue that he had carried into the contest. Karatsev was visibly struggling during the fifth game of the final set, when he was broken critically for 3-2. Eventually he saw the trainer at 4-3 in the final set, but it he couldn’t find the energy to rally from a break down.

“First of all, I feel like Aslan had some issues at the end,” he said. “He was struggling a bit with his leg. It’s very unfortunate. I wish him all the best.” 

Karatsev made it tough down the stretch as he saved four match points in an eight-deuce game to stay alive and force Struff to serve out the win.

“For me, it wasn’t that easy because I knew I had to put the ball in and play aggressive,” Struff later said, “But yeah, he played amazing on these match points. I tried to get it done at 5-3. Serving for it is different. I lost the first point – he played a good point and, yeah, I managed to stay calm, serving well, going for my shots.”

Struff finished with 27 winners on the day, 15 of which came off the serve, while Karatsev also struck 27 winners, including 17 off the forehand side.

There wasn’t much between them when all was said in done – just a dip in Karatsev’s level due to fatigue that made the difference in the final set.

Read also

Birthday boy Alcaraz dispatches Coric to reach Madrid final

Tennis Majors

Ahead of his victory, the 33-year-old German won against Italian Lorenzo Sonego (6-3, 6-1), American Ben Shelton, the No 32 seed (4-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5), Serb Dusan Lajovic (6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-3), Argentinian Pedro Cachin (7-6 (7), 6-7 (7), 6-3) and Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the No 4 seed (7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-3).

Karatsev, ranked No 121, beat Serb Laslo Djere (7-6 (5), 7-5), Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp, the No 23 seed (6-2, 7-5), Australian Alex De Minaur, the No 16 seed (6-3, 4-6, 6-4), second seed Daniil Medvedev (7-6 (1), 6-4) and Chinese Zhizhen Zhang (7-6 (3), 6-4) earlier in the tournament.

Madrid Masters, other semi-final result (Caja Magica, clay, EUR 7.705.780):

• Carlos Alcaraz beat Borna Coric (17): 6-4, 6-3