Struff thinks the ATP could take a leaf out of UTS’s book: “We should do away with the warm-up and allow the fans to talk and move around”.

Jan-Lennard Struff took part in his first UTS in Frankfurt this weekend. In front of his home crowd, ‘The Thunder’ unfortunately failed to qualify for the Final 4 after three defeats to Grigor Dimitrov ‘G-Unit’, Casper Ruud ‘The Ice Man’ and Benoit Paire ‘The Rebel’.

But the German player appreciated the concept of UTS and its innovative format. Speaking in the mixed zone after his final match of the day on Saturday, the world No 23 explained that the ATP could draw inspiration from it to improve the experience of players and fans on the circuit.

“The first thing I would apply on the ATP Tour from UTS would be to stop the warm-up,” he said. “It’s not necessary. And I think it’s good when fans can talk and there’s a bit of atmosphere all the time, maybe not noise and music to the extreme – but a bit is good. And also that people can come in and out all the time. That should be the case too.”

Struff careful with his hip

Before playing UTS Frankfurt this weekend, Jan-Lennard Struff had not played a single match since the Halle tournament in June 2023. The German suffered a hip injury and has taken his time to try and get back to 100 percent without the risk of a relapse.

Still in the mixed zone, ‘The Thunder’ spoke about this complicated moment and his upcoming schedule over the next few weeks on the ATP circuit.

In the last few weeks, I’ve done a lot of training, but I’ve had to keep a close eye on it. When I broke my toe in 2022, I knew when I returned to the circuit that the toe was in good condition and wouldn’t break again. This time, with the hip injury, it was more difficult. I had to adapt from time to time because sometimes it still hurt.”

“Tomorrow I’m off to some ATP tournaments in China. So far, I haven’t been able to train hard. I’ve had to control myself to avoid re-injuring myself. So I still don’t know what it will be like in China, or how long the time difference will last. Normally, I train more than the other players.”

“I don’t have any targets for results, but I know that this return will be difficult. I want to finish the year with a good feeling, pick up a few wins and then prepare well for the season ahead.”

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