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Jan-Lennard Struff scripted a stunning performance to cause an upset, beating fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-3 to reach the semifinals of the ongoing Madrid Open at the Caja Magica.
The German will next face Aslan Karatsev in the semifinals of the ongoing Madrid Open. The German has lost just five service games in the main draw and dropped just one to the fourth seed. Both players were in good form at the Manolo Santana Stadium, controlling points with their serves and backing it up with brutal groundstrokes and frequently approaching the net on the red clay. Struff appeared to be affected by the occasion when he double-failed away the first break of the match at 5-5 in the second set. At 2-1 in the third set, after surviving the first nine break points of the match, German earned his first break point of the contest. The native of Warstein pounced on the chance with both hands, pounding back-to-back backhands that his opponent was helpless to block. Struff's down-the-line backhand was particularly effective and frequently put the Greek in trouble. Tsitsipas claimed one match point with a stunning forehand passing shot, and Struff won two back-to-back points, clinching his victory when the fourth seed missed a backhand return long. "It feels amazing. It was a very, very hard battle. I knew before I needed to perform at my best. Very, very happy that I played this well today. The crowd was amazing. It was an unbelievable atmosphere and really, really happy that I won," ATP.com quoted Struff saying in his on-court interview. Talking about the clash against Aslan Karatsev in the semifinals Struff said, "Aslan is playing amazing this week so far and he beat me pretty easily in qualies I need to say. I didn't play the best tennis in that match, but he made me play not good I feel like. I think we need to analyse it now, focus on the match tomorrow and I hope I can do better." "He was serving so good the whole match and it was so tough to get into points. But 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 tie-break," Struff said. Struff termed his win against Tsitsipas a big win and said that he recovered from the second-set defeat by playing aggressive shots to claim the match. "I thought I played [in] the second set a very, very good set, but I played a bad game at 5-all. And in the third set, I came out aggressive again and it was a huge win for me," he added. (ANI)
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