Jan-Lennard Struff fights his way back into the tiebreak after falling behind, but Alexandre Müller ultimately prevails.
Professional tennis player Jan-Lennard Struff bitterly missed out on an important victory at the ATP tournament in Athens. The 35-year-old lost in the first round to fifth seed Alexandre Müller from France. The final score was 3-6, 6-2, 6-7 (6-8) after a hard-fought match from the German’s perspective, who even missed a match point and had already led 4-0 in the tiebreak.
Struff had to fight his way through qualifying to reach the main draw in Athens. He even dropped a set against Henry Bernet (Switzerland), ranked 531 in the world.
Disappointing season for Struff
After a rather disappointing season, the Warstein native has slipped to 101st in the world rankings – a further drop in the rankings in the final phase of the tennis year would jeopardize Struff’s direct qualification for the main draw at the Australian Open at the start of the new season in January.
After Struff’s exit, Yannick Hanfmann is the last remaining German in the field. He will face 17-year-old Bulgarian wild card player Ivan Ivanov on Tuesday.
