Davis Cup player Jan-Lennard Struff (Warstein) has suffered a clear defeat in his third round duel with superstar Roger Federer at the grass classic in Wimbledon.
The 28-year-old Struff lost to the eight-time champion and defending champion 3:6, 5:7, 2:6 on Friday evening, taking a total of 94 minutes on the course’s Centre Court on London’s Church Road.
“I played well and didn’t allow much,” Federer said after the match: “In the end, I was happy that I was able to save a bit of energy and finished it quickly. I don’t underestimate anyone, it keeps me on course here.” Federer’s next opponent is now the Frenchman Adrian Mannarino (No. 22).
Struff missed the first round of a Grand Slam tournament with his defeat. All in all, however, he achieved the best major result of his career. In his 20th main field appearance at one of the four most important tournaments of the tennis year, he had reached the third round for the first time after 14 first-round and five second-round bankruptcies.
However, the record Grand Slam winner Federer was too big for the 64th place in the world rankings, and only in the second round did Struff really keep up against the “Maestro”. At the Australian Open in January, the two had already faced each other in round two. Federer had also prevailed in three sets at that time.
Struff had earned the duel with the Swiss by winning two marathons in rounds one and two. After beating Argentinian Leonardo Mayer 2-0 behind on Monday, he beat Croatian service giant Ivo Karlovic 6-7 (5-7), 3-6, 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-4), 13-11 on Wednesday.
Because Philipp Kohlschreiber (Augsburg/No. 25) also lost his third round match against the South African Kevin Anderson (No. 8) in three sets on Friday, Alexander Zverev (Hamburg/No. 4) is the last German tennis professional in the tournament. The 21-year-old will play his third match against Ernests Gulbis (Latvia) on Saturday after his narrow five-set victory against Taylor Fritz from the USA.
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