Hanfmann shines only one sentence
Unorthodox playing Bublik throws Struff out
06/23/2023, 07:05 am
Jan-Lennard Struff is fighting for a place in the quarter-finals in Halle, but bites his teeth off his unorthodox and tricky opponent Alexander Bublik. Yannick Hanfmann is also eliminated, he only provides strong resistance to the Russian Andrei Rubljow for one set.
Jan-Lennard Struff and Yannick Hanfmann narrowly missed making it into the quarter-finals at the tennis tournament in Halle, Westphalia. Struff lost in the round of 16 against Kazakh Alexander Bublik 3: 6, 7: 6 (7: 4), 3: 6. Hanfmann then had to admit defeat to the Russian Andrej Rubljow 6:7 (6:8), 3:6.
This means that only Alexander Zverev is in the German lawn classic. After a day off, the Olympic champion will face Nicolas Jarry from Chile in the second game after 12 noon this Friday in the fight for a place in the semi-finals. Zverev was last in the semi-finals in Halle in 2017. The 26-year-old from Hamburg has never won the tournament in the ATP 500 category.
Struff had many chances against the unorthodox and tricky playing Bublik, but was unable to take advantage of them under the roof of the OWL Arena, which was closed due to the rain. In the first two sets, Struff was one break ahead, but had to admit defeat after a total of 2:13 hours. The decision in favor of Bublik was made in the sixth game of the third set, when the Kazakh used his seventh break ball to lead 4-2. Struff reached the final in Stuttgart last week.
“He served incredibly well and was very stable from the baseline,” Struff praised his opponent. Once he even casually served from below. Struff stormed to the net in surprise to return the slow and short service, but only played the felt ball in the half field and received a perfect praise. “Maybe we were missing one or two percent today. I was a bit tired mentally,” admitted the 33-year-old Warsteiner. This Friday he is still in doubles action alongside Oscar Otte.
Hanfmann was only able to hold up against Rublev in the first set. Although the 31-year-old from Karlsruhe lost his first serve, he then fought his way back into the game. The decision was made in the tie-break, where the Russian used the second set ball. In the second period, Rublev quickly pulled away to 4:0. Although Hanfmann came back again and shortened to 2:4. But he couldn’t turn the game around.