Jan-Lennard Struff brought the high favorite Carlos Alcaraz to the brink of defeat, but he was not granted the crowning glory of his "madness week" at the ATP Masters in Madrid. The 33-year-old from Warstein had to admit defeat in the final against the Spanish defending champion after a great fight 4: 6, 6: 3, 3: 6 - and yet he left the Caja Magica as the winner.
Struff had actually already been eliminated in qualifying, but he moved into the main draw as a lucky loser and started a remarkable triumph that catapulted him up the world rankings.
Tenth title for Alcaraz
On Monday, Struff, who played his way into the hearts of many fans, will be ranked 28th, higher than ever before in his career. He had started the season in 150th place last year after injury concerns. However, Struff still has to wait for his first tournament victory on the ATP tour. Alcaraz was a size too big, even if he had to stretch much more than in his clear final success in Madrid last year against Olympic champion Alexander Zverev (Hamburg).
World number two Alcaraz secured his tenth title and his fourth this season. After winning the tournament in Barcelona, he repeated the Spain double. At the French Open in Paris (from 28 May), Alcaraz starts as the favorite, but Struff can also count on chances at the peak of the clay court season. The Davis Cup player will be one of the 32 seeds and thus avoid the top stars in the first rounds.
"Buy Struff shares now"
And according to national tennis coach Michael Kohlmann, Struff is far from exhausting his potential. "If it could, I would buy Struff shares now," Kohlmann told the Sports Information Service before the final.
With Madrid's successes behind him, the German Davis Cup captain has a lot of confidence in his protégé at the height of the clay court season in France's capital. "Jan-Lennard has a great position, many victories and a lot of self-confidence," said the Kohlmann, but also warned: "Madrid is at 700 meters and is therefore much faster than other clay court tournaments. That suits him. But even in Roland Garros, the clay courts are fast."
Against Alcaraz and in front of 12,500 mostly Spanish fans, veteran Struff first had to get his nerves under control in the most important match of his career, giving up his first service game after two double faults. However, the German ticked off this neck blow in an impressive way: Struff subsequently sought his salvation in the attack - and broke to make it 2-2.
Alcaraz was impressed by Struff's courageous demeanor, he struggled with his own performance. But the US Open winner was able to go one better towards the end of the first set. His shots became more precise, Alcaraz pushed himself with shouts of "Vamos", and after 52 minutes he took the first round.
Anyone who thought that Struff's resistance would be broken was mistaken. The Warsteiner broke Alcaraz at the beginning of the second round and took a 3-0 lead. He won the game to make it 4-1 after 15 minutes and a little later the set.
In the deciding round, Alcaraz then pressed the reset button. He played sometimes powerfully and sometimes emotionally, the winning shots came all of a sudden, the fans went wild. Struff resisted defeat in vain.