Stefanos Tsitsipas beaten at Madrid Open as lucky loser Jan-Lennard Struff turns in sensational display
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Updated 04/05/2023 at 21:34 GMT
It will be a hugely unexpected second semi-final on Friday at the Madrid Open, as Jan-Lennard Struff takes on Aslan Karatsev. The pair both came through qualifying - even playing each other en route - and have shone this week in seeing off some of the game's leading talents. Struff played far better in beating Stefanos Tsitsipas than his world ranking of 65 suggests.
Highlights as Karatsev Defeats Zhang at the Madrid Open
Stefanos Tsitsipas was beaten at the Madrid Open as lucky loser Jan-Lennard Struff turned in a sensational display to win in three sets 7-6 5-7 6-3.
Struff will take on Aslan Karatsev in the semi-finals, after the Russian had earlier defeated Zhizhen Zhang.
In a remarkable twist of fate, Struff will face Karatsev for the second time in the tournament, after the pair met in qualifying, with Karatsev winning in straight sets.
Struff, however, got the benefit of being called back into the draw as a lucky loser, and how he has made the most of that this week with wins over the likes of Lorenzo Sonego, Ben Shelton and now Tsitsipas taking him to a first Masters 1000 semi-final, after reaching the quarter-finals last month in Monte Carlo.
"It's an amazing journey here," Struff said. "I never thought last week that when I lost the match against Aslan that we would meet now in the semi-finals, it's just unreal.
"I played a pretty good match [against Tsitsipas]. He was better in the first set, I somehow won the set, I stayed in my service games. I served pretty well in important moments.
"Third set I came out and I got a push from my box, and I played a very aggressive game style, that was the key today."
The likes of Atletico Madrid midfielder Marcos Llorente and NBA star Willy Hernangomez watched on as the two players got to work, with serve dominance being the order of the day early on.
Tsitsipas had the first chance to make inroads, landing two break points at 2-2, but he couldn't seal either and Struff seemed to settle thereafter, beginning to find his range from the back of the court and moving forward whenever he could to finish off points at the net.
Three subsequent games went to deuce - two of them on Struff's serve - but it was perhaps inevitable that it would go to a tie-break with the pair very well-matched for the most part.
But what no one saw coming was how Struff - at one point 4-1 down in the breaker - would recover to take it, and land a stunning, unexpected blow to Tsitsipas' hopes.
And there was no lowering of the level in set two from the German, by now coming into the net with increasing regularity as Tsitsipas looked at a loss to deal with what was coming at him.
It was blow for blow as the set progressed, with just the one break point to have been and gone during the set - that in the first game of the set to Tsitsipas.
Struff moved to 5-4 after hammering down another ace and some rasping forehands, but after Tsitsipas levelled at 5-5, the No. 4 seed then brought up three break points in Struff's next service game.
Two were saved, but a double fault from Struff heralded a first break of the entire match, as Tsitsipas was now one game from levelling the encounter.
And it was a convincing bounce into a decider from the Greek as he won his serve to love, as Struff's level just dropped off at the crucial point.
There were more warnings signs for the German early in the third as Tsitsipas had two break points at 1-1, only for Struff to hold - and then break Tsitsipas himself in the next, having earned his first break point of the match.
It was a remarkable turnaround as Struff marched on into a 5-2 lead, showing no signs of nerves as he closed on a first Masters 1000 semi-final.
His backhand down the line was working especially well, as Tsitsipas' discussions with his box became more and more agitated as the match looked like slipping away.
And that it eventually did, as Struff - serving at 5-3 up - wrapped things up on his second match point, to become only the third lucky loser to make it this far in a Masters 1000 event.
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