Davis Cup: Jan-Lennard Struff gives Germany a 1-0 lead
As in the match against France, Jan-Lennard Struff has now presented against Belgium. After 6: 4 and 7: 6 (9) against Zizou Bergs, Germany leads 1: 0.
by Jens Huiber
last edit:
Sep 16, 2022, 04:25 pm
The external, rather cool circumstances and the associated rather slow nature of the court at Hamburg's Rothenbaum present the servers with complicated tasks. The fact that a match between two seasoned ATP professionals on hard court starts with five breaks in a row is extraordinary. After all, Jan-Lennard Struff managed to win a game with his own service in the encounter against Zizou Bergs 4: 2. After defending against three breakballs. And that should be enough to bring the first round home safely with a score of 6:4.
In the second act, the serve went up to 5: 4 for Bergs, until Struff invited his opponent to a set ball with a double fault. The Warsteiner fended off this chance just as courageously as the second a few moments later. But Struff kept shaking. Also in the twelfth game he allowed Bergs a break opportunity. And a second one that the Belgian should have used.
Struff fends off seven set balls
After twelve minutes, which the twelfth game took up, and the defense of another set ball, Struff finally reached the tie-break. And started there with a mini-break, the sides were still changed at 3:3. After a playing time of 1:58 hours, Struff worked out his first match point. But Bergs didn't have enough and equalized to make it 6:6. Struff, on the other hand, didn't necessarily want to go into a third set, fending off Berg's seventh (!) set ball with a backhand shot to make it 9: 9.
Two points later, Jan-Lennard Struff had sealed the important first point for Germany.
In the second singles, the Belgian top man David Goffin and Oscar Otte face each other. At the start of the Davis Cup intermediate round on Wednesday, Germany narrowly won 2-1 against France.