Struff upsets Tsitsipas in Halle, sets Sinner clash

pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jan-lennard-struff/sl28/overview'Jan-Lennard Struff/a is playing some of his best tennis on home soil this week at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/halle/500/overview'Terra Wortmann Open/a./pp

The German downed sixth seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/stefanos-tsitsipas/te51/overview'Stefanos Tsitsipas/a 6-4, 6-4 on Thursday, setting a quarter-final clash against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jannik-sinner/s0ag/overview'Jannik Sinner/a, World No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings. The 34-year-old dropped just five points behind his first serve, according to Infosys ATP Stats, and drew errors from Tsitsipas' backhand to advance after 67 minutes./pp“It’s very special. The crowd was supporting me like hell and it was just an amazing feeling, amazing atmosphere,” said Struff, who did not face a break point. “It means really a lot to finally take this step.”/p[ATP APP]

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One day after saving a match point to defeat a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/luciano-darderi/d0fj/overview'Luciano Darderi/a, Struff struck 22 winners to just five unforced errors to overhaul the Greek and avenge last month’s Rome loss to Tsitsipas. Their Lexus ATP Head2Head series is now tied at 4-4. Struff is 0-2 against Sinner with both meetings coming this season (Indian Wells, Monte-Carlo)./pp“I was very happy. Yesterday was a tough match. I was sick before and today in the morning, I felt good," Struff said. "I had good connection with the ball straight away and came in very well. I was serving pretty good, playing aggressive style. Very, very pleased with the way I played.”/p

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In 11 appearances at the grass ATP 500, Struff is into the last eight for the first time. The World No. 34 won his maiden tour-level crown this year in Munich, becoming the third-oldest (33) first-time ATP Tour titlist since the inception of the Tour in 1990./pblockquote class="twitter-tweet"p lang="en" dir="ltr"Quarter-FINALLY! ????brbrAt the 11th time of asking a href="https://twitter.com/Struffitennis?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@Struffitennis/a hits his maiden QF in Hallea href="https://twitter.com/ATPHalle?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@ATPHalle/a | a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TerraWortmannOpen?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#TerraWortmannOpen/a a href="https://t.co/h4rlQf6TeB"pic.twitter.com/h4rlQf6TeB/a/pmdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1803848151046197506?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"June 20, 2024/a/blockquote script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/scriptpTsitsipas holds a 29-11 season record, with his best result being a title run in Monte-Carlo. The 25-year-old was aiming for his first grass quarter-final since winning the ATP 250 in Mallorca two years ago./pp

Earlier in Halle, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/marcos-giron/gc88/overview'Marcos Giron/a overcame a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/matteo-berrettini/bk40/overview'Matteo Berrettini/a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first player ranked outside the Top 50 to defeat the Italian on grass since No. 53 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/gilles-simon/sd32/overview'Gilles Simon/a at 2018 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a./pp

“He is unbelievable on grass, with every tournament he plays on grass he practically makes the final or wins it,” Giron said of Berrettini, who is now 41-10 on grass. “I knew it was going to be a challenge and I knew I had to take care of my serve and hopefully I get an opportunity. I stayed with extreme urgency and full focus.”/ppdiv

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The American is into the Halle quarter-finals for the second time (2021). Giron ousted last year’s finalist a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/andrey-rublev/re44/overview'Andrey Rublev/a in the opening round before improving to 2-0 against Berrettini./pp

Up to No. 46 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, two spots shy of his career-high, the 30-year-old next faces fifth seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/hubert-hurkacz/hb71/overview'Hubert Hurkacz/a, who ousted Australian a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/james-duckworth/d994/overview'James Duckworth/a 7-6(3), 6-4. The Pole, who won the ATP 500 in 2022, fired 17 aces and dropped just three points behind his first delivery Thursday./p/br[NEWSLETTER FORM]/p