The music played, the line “Put your hands up in the air” blared loudly over the speakers, and indeed some of the audience did so, but not all. Most of the others were still clapping. Ralf Exel, as stadium announcer a kind of David Letterman of the Center Court, tried to encourage the audience to say a little greeting to the winner of the game that had just ended. “That was…” – “great”, that’s what everyone should shout, like the unforgettable Hans Rosenthal once did at Dalli Dalli. But not everyone remembered immediately or didn’t know the reference to the famous TV man because of their young age, so Exel started again: “That was…” he exclaimed on the microphone, now it echoed back: “Great !”
Shortly afterwards the winner walked over to Exel, the people applauded again; they had already been standing. Jan-Lennard Struff looked up at the stands in disbelief. He raised both hands. It almost seemed as if he wanted to apologize for his performance. Can you play tennis too perfectly? Is this allowed? One may. And so he enjoyed the moment, smiling. Even the sun shone down, making the moment even more special after a week of unpredictable weather.
Struff is considered the second best German tennis professional. But this time he stepped out from the second row
Struff, 33, from Warstein, is the second best German tennis professional and is often perceived in the shadow of Alexander Zverev. But at this BMW Open in Munich, the ATP tournament in the 250 category, he is just stepping out of this second row. The Davis Cup player stormed into the final in impressive fashion.
On Saturday afternoon he defeated the Dane Holger Rune, the winner of the past two years, 6:2, 6:0 in 45 minutes. For the second time since 2021, Struff is in the final in Munich. Three years ago he lost the duel for the title against the Georgian Nikolos Basilashvili. In the final he will now face the American Taylor Fritz, who won convincingly against the Chilean Cristian Garín 6:3, 6:4. After the semi-final, Struff, the marathon man, immediately marched back onto the court; his semi-final in doubles with partner Andreas Mies was still to come.
Zverev couldn’t cope with the rain, he was the only one who complained
Zverev, who turned 27 this Saturday, failed against Garín on Friday and largely blamed the weather for his defeat. In fact, it was drizzling throughout his game, but his opponent, who had triumphed in Munich in 2019, also had to cope with the conditions. Zverev was the only one of all the professionals to complain like that, this time Struff showed him how to approach the “toughest clay court tournament in the world”, as the organizers call their event with a touch of irony: never look for excuses, always want to fight have, cheer yourself on, get the audience on your side.
On Saturday morning, Struff had completed his quarter-final against Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, which had been canceled the previous evening due to darkness; He confidently defended the 7:5, 3:1 lead from Friday and won this match 7:5, 6:4. “I’ve played some good matches this year, but today was almost flawless. I’m very happy,” said Struff after reaching the final and summed up pointedly: “That was just awesome.” The spectators cheered. “It’s so nice to be in the final in Germany,” Struff continued. “I’ll try to go all the way tomorrow – and try to win the title. We’ll see.” It would be hard to believe, his first ATP singles title. Fritz, for his part, has not yet won a title on clay. So one of the two will have a premiere on Sunday.