Struff stops home hope Bergs – Brussels semi-final against top seed Fils
Jan-Lennard Struff is into the semi-finals of the ATP event in Brussels after beating Zizou Bergs 6-3, 7-6. Fellow German Daniel Altmaier lost to Taylor Fritz in Lyon.
Archive image · Photo: si.robi / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped and resized)
Jan-Lennard Struff has reached the semi-finals of the ATP 250 tournament in Brussels. The German beat Belgian crowd favourite Zizou Bergs 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) on Friday evening without dropping serve, tennisnet.com reported. In the tie-break Struff let slip a 3-0 lead and two match points before converting the third after 1 hour 38 minutes. According to Tennis Majors, the 36-year-old world No. 58 is the second-oldest semi-finalist in the tournament's history after Roberto Bautista Agut; it is his 15th tour-level semi-final.
On Saturday Struff faces top seed Arthur Fils of France, who beat Alex Michelsen 6-4, 7-6 (14-12). Fils won their only previous meeting, according to Tennis Tonic. The other semi-final pits Francisco Cerundolo against Tallon Griekspoor, who beat second seed Jiri Lehecka 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. Struff is set to return to the top 50 on Monday, tennisnet.com reported; his only title so far came in Munich in April 2024.
Daniel Altmaier's run in Lyon is over. The 28-year-old world No. 65 lost his quarter-final to American Taylor Fritz 6-7 (5-7), 2-6. Against the hard-serving world No. 14, Altmaier did not earn a single break point all match, Sport1 reported.