Tennis professional Struff at Wimbledon: Now he is challenging Sinner in the quarter-finals

After Jan-Lennart Struff’s third-round victory, his manager worriedly ran to the counter behind which they worked out in which room which professional would hold his press conference. The South Tyrolean with the fantastic name Corrado Tschabuschnig asked whether his client really had to go to one of the small chambers. But there was no other way. So on Friday everyone squeezed in, eight or nine German reporters and one English-speaking reporter sat in a circle around Struff. When the discussion round was over, Tschabuschnig joked: “After the semi-finals over there,” he said: Then Struff will speak in the Media Theater. The laughter was hearty, Struff also grinned and made a gesture with his fingers as he left that said: Let the guy have a chat!

Struff himself was very wrong. Because just two days later he is sitting in the main conference room of the grass classic in Wimbledon. He is still one win short of reaching the round of the last four that Tschabuschnig spoke of. But Struff had already been promoted to space that late Sunday evening at the All England Club. Which was appropriate. The Warstein native not only defeated the Pole Hubert Hurkacz in the fourth round. Struff is now also immortalized in the history book of international tennis. At 36, he is the oldest player in the professional era (since 1968) to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament in men’s singles for the first time.

Wherever you ask around in German tennis, you hear the same answer: Nobody deserves this success more than Struff, who is certainly one of the most popular among colleagues and those interested in tennis. It is not for nothing that he is affectionately called “Struffi”. World number three Alexander Zverev paid homage to him at Wimbledon with a lengthy declaration of love and described him as a teddy bear “who doesn’t have an ounce of evil in him.” DTB President Dietloff von Arnim told the SZ: “His sensational attitude over the years has finally been rewarded.” For Davis Cup team boss Michael Kohlmann, Struff is “an absolute role model; young people can always learn a lesson from him.” Struff is characterized by the fact that he never gives up, “even when things don’t go well. He’s had to accept setbacks several times, like at the beginning of the year, where he had a lot of defeats. But he always sticks with it.” That’s the way it is.

The fact that Struff became the twelfth male German player to reach the round of the last eight is primarily due to his “incredible will,” as Kohlmann explained. And rightly referred to his performances now. In the first round, Struff lost a 2-0 set lead against the Argentinian Sebastián Báez, was down 1-3 in the fifth set – and won. He fought a 4:25-hour battle with four tiebreaks with the American Brandon Nakashima. The game lasted so long that the fifth set could only be played the next day due to darkness. Against the former US Open winner Daniil Medvedev he had a 2:9 record, was 2:5 behind in the second set, again 2:5 in the third set and even had two breaks – he turned both sets. The next comeback against Hurkacz, 0:2 sets, but Struff couldn’t be shaken off, back and abdominal muscle problems ultimately forced the former top ten player to give up at 2:4 in the fifth set. But Struff had also driven him into a corner.

Even when there was a threat of a fall in the tennis world rankings, Struff stuck to himself

“All the matches together like that is crazy,” said Struff on Sunday, his face full of amazement. He has secured 560,000 euros in prize money, but he didn’t want to be told how much he would earn before the round of 16. Young people can learn this lesson from Struff too: never let yourself be driven crazy! Struff’s Sauerland fatalism is his recipe for success. Even when there was a threat of falling in the world rankings, he stuck to himself. The results came at some point. Zverev summed it up admiringly: “Every time you think he’s going to stop playing tennis, there comes a tournament like this where he qualifies for the entire next year in the top 100.” How does Struff manage to always defend himself against resistance on the pitch? “I have it in me so much that I want to keep playing and working.” A record is telling: out of 25 matches over five sets in his career, he won 14.

Whether Struff’s journey continues will be decided this Tuesday when he meets world number one and defending champion Jannik Sinner. “Of course I’m confident that I can do something there. Otherwise there’s no point in going out there,” he says relaxed. In any case, at Wimbledon he is now a member of the Last 8 Club, which only exists here. Anyone who reaches the quarter-finals receives lifetime access as a spectator. Struff comments on the whole thing with a typical Struffi sentence: “I have no idea what that is exactly. I still have to find out. But it’s great, yes.”