Struff Stuns Tsitsipas to Set Unlikely Madrid semi-final

For the first time in Madrid Open history, a lucky loser will take his place in the semi-finals. And it will happen with a twist. Jan-Lennard Struff, who was defeated by Aslan Karatsev in the second round of qualifying last week, will face none other than the Russian on Friday, for a spot in one of the most prestigious clay-court finals on the tour.

This time, when he lines up across the net from Karatsev, he’ll be much more confident…

Struff delivered a stunning 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-3 victory over fourth-seed Stefanos Tsitsipas on Thursday, rounding out the semi-finals with a clutch performance that saw him save nine of ten break points and convert the only break point he saw as he moved past the Greek talent in two hours and 30 minutes.

The 33-year-old becomes the first lucky loser to reach a semi-final at a Masters 1000 event since 2016 (Lucas Pouille).

Struff improves to 3-3 lifetime against Tsitsipas, and 1-1 on the red clay.

“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.”

After stealing the opening set in a tiebreak, Struff was broken late in the second set as Tsitsipas forced him to a decider, marking the fifth time in six career meetings that the pair have played a decider.

“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,” Struff said. “I thought I played a very good second set, but I played a bad game at 5-all.”

Struff broke for 3-1 in the final set and saved a break point while serving at 4-2 before closing out his victory by converting his second match point.

The German has now defeated two Top 5 players in the same season (also No 4 Ruud at Monte-Carlo) for the first time in his career, and five times overall.

“The third set, I came out aggressive again and, yeah, it was a huge win for me,” the world No 65 said.

Karatsev, the qualifier, next

Karatsev, who defeated Struff, 6-4, 6-2 in the second round of qualifying, is also carving a unique path to the final weekend in Madrid. The 29-year-old is the first qualifier to reach the semi-finals in the Spanish capital since 2002.

Karatsev defeated China’s Zhang Zhizhen on Thursday to become the first qualifier to reach the semis at a Masters 1000 since Felix Auger-Aliassime reached the last four at Miami in 2019.

Struff knows he’ll need to be better than he was last week to get past the red-hot Russian.

“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.”

Earlier in the tournament, 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) and Argentinian Pedro Cachin (7-6 (7), 6-7 (7), 6-3).

Tsitsipas, ranked No 5, defeated Austrian wildcard Dominic Thiem (3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (5)), Argentinian Sebastian Baez, the No 25 seed (7-5, 3-6, 6-3) and Spaniard Bernabe Zapata Miralles (6-3, 6-1) in the previous rounds of the Madrid tournament.

Madrid Masters, other last eight results (Caja Magica, clay, EUR 7.705.780, most recent results first):

• Aslan Karatsev beat Zhizhen Zhang: 7-6 (3), 6-4
• Borna Coric (17) beat Daniel Altmaier (LL): 6-3, 6-3
• Carlos Alcaraz (1) beat Karen Khachanov (10): 6-4, 7-5

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