Jan-Lennard Struff and Philipp Kohlschreiber have reached the second round of the ATP-Masters in Monte Carlo. The 27-year-old from Warstein defeated Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-4, 6-2 at the clay court tournament worth 5.238 million euros, and shortly afterwards Kohlschreiber defeated last year’s Spanish finalist Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-4, 6-2.
Against Fognini, the world’s number 61 did not let itself be deterred by an early loss of serve. Struff won his straightforward game against the favourite Italian after only 65 minutes.
In the round of sixteen, Struff will face his Davis Cup colleague Alexander Zverev, who leads 3-0 in a direct comparison. “We know each other well, but on this court he’s just like any other. I hope I can beat him, but of course I know he’s a very good player,” said Struff after the match at Sky. Alexander Zverev and his brother Mischa (both from Hamburg) had already reached the round of 16 on Tuesday.
Kohlschreiber also prevailed unexpectedly well against Ramos-Vinolas. Above all, the perfect breakpoint quota (3/3) made the pendulum swing in favour of the experienced player, while the Spaniard could not take advantage of any of his three break chances.
Peter Gojowczyk (Munich) and Florian Mayer (Bayreuth) were out of the six German professionals in the field on Monday. The Spanish world number one and Monaco record winner Rafael Nadal (ten wins) will play his opening match against Aljaz Bedene (Slovenia) this afternoon.