Jannik Sinner is in the semifinals. © APA/afp / CARMEN JASPERSEN
It was a hard-fought quarter-final match, but in the end Jannik Sinner lived up to his role as favourite at the ATP 500 tournament in Halle/Westphalia and defeated Jan-Lennard Struff. In the all-important tiebreak, the world number 1 kept his nerve.
21. June 2024
From: on
The match was over after 2 hours and 33 minutes: Sinner put his opponent, the 34-year-old home player Struff (ATP 41), in his place and moved into the semi-finals of the Terra Wortmann Open with a 6:2, 6:7 (1:7), 7:6 (7:3). Ultimately, it was a much tougher fight for Sinner on the grass in Halle than expected: One of the things the Sextner can be accused of wasting his break chances carelessly: he missed 16 (out of 18) break points. Conversely, however, he only allowed one break chance and squandered it.
Struff, an avowed BVB fan, had previously won his round of 16 match against the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas 6:4, 6:4. The Warsteiner also managed to impress against Sinner at times, especially in the second and third sets. His hard serves (18 aces in total) repeatedly posed a threat.
The German local hero missed the surprise. © APA/afp / CARMEN JASPERSEN
A crucial point in the first set was the sixth game: after both players had served, Sinner took a 40-0 lead on Struff’s serve. The 22-year-old from Sexten missed all three break chances in a row, but didn’t let that bother him. It went back and forth, Struff was unable to capitalize on three advantages, and Sinner finally converted his fourth break point. South Tyrol’s tennis ace then confidently completed his own serve and converted the third break and set point in this game to win the set 6-2.
In the second set, Struff fought against the impending defeat and fended off one break point in the 4th game and six in the 6th game. It went into a tie break, which the German won 7:1 – with Sinner losing his serve three times.
Sinner keeps his nerve
In the third set, Sinner missed 5 break points in the first game and had to fend off a break point – Struff’s only one in the match – at 2:3. At 4:4, Sinner missed 2 more break chances. In the end, it happened as it had to: the tie break had to decide the set and thus the match. Here, the world number 1 kept her nerve and converted the second match point to win 7:3.
The semifinals will take place on Saturday. Sinner will face Chinese Zhizhen Zhang, who beat Christopher Eubanks in 3 sets. The 27-year-old Asian is number 42 in the ATP rankings.
2024-06-21 17:42:04
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