Struff Reaches Fourth Munich Quarter-Final
Jan-Lennard Struff added a fourth quarter-final to his BMW Open resume in Munich on Thursday with a 7-6(3), 6-7(0), 6-2 victory against countryman Dominik Koepfer.
The 31-year-old recovered from 2-4 down in the first set and won the final four games of the match to reach the last eight in Munich after two hours and 39 minutes. Struff struck 11 aces throughout his first ATP Head2Head encounter against Koepfer and saved four of the five break points he faced to improve to 10-6 at the ATP 250.
“I am very, very happy that I turned around the first set,” Struff said in his on-court interview. “I played a not good second-set tie-break. Before [that] the set was okay, but I couldn’t lock into his service games that much… I am very happy that I broke him in the third set and I am very happy to be through. Dominik is a good guy and a very good player.”
[WATCH LIVE 1]Struff will attempt to reach his second Munich semi-final (2014) when he faces fourth seed Filip Krajinovic on Friday. The World No. 44 lost his only previous match against the Serbian in three sets at the 2014 Hamburg European Open.
“I am really looking forward to my match tomorrow against Filip Krajinovic… I think it is going to be a very tough match. I played him in Hamburg [seven] years ago and lost in three sets. I hope I can beat him tomorrow.”
Nikoloz Basilashvili also reached the quarter-finals with a 6-4, 6-2 win against Daniel Elahi Galan. The fifth seed converted four of his seven break points to move past the Colombian qualifier in 77 minutes.
Basilashvili will meet Norbert Gombos in the last eight. The lucky loser reached his second quarter-final of the European clay swing with a 6-4, 6-1 win against Federico Coria.