Jan-Lennard Struff dispatched top seed and defending champion Karen Khachanov at the Almaty Open on Thursday.
The 35-year-old German rallied for a 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-3 victory over the world No. 10 thanks to a service-filled display that saw him through even though he did not see his first break point until an hour and 40 minutes into the match.
Struff took the match to a second-set tiebreak, then broke Khachanov for the first time to open the deciding set. He then saved a break point to hold for 3-1 and pushed a four-game point to hold for 4-2.
Struff converted his fourth match point, breaking Khachanov in the final game to set up a quarter-final with No. 8 Corentin Moutet.
Former world number 21 (currently 98) Struff hit 12 aces and didn’t face a break point in sets two and three. He improves to 2-3 life against Khachanov.
Earlier in the day Daniil Medvedev came through a close battle with Adam Walton to win 7-5, 7-6(0). Medvedev was in trouble in the second set as Walton had five chances to take a 5-1 lead, but the former no. 1 of the world came in and played some great tennis.
He says he likes the atmosphere of the home ground in Almaty, with Russian-speaking home fans rooting him on.
“I was very nervous during this match, which is probably not typical for me,” he said. “I mean, everyone gets nervous during matches – you have break points, you feel the pressure. But in this match, I was under a lot of pressure that I put on myself, for reasons I’m not going to enter. For example, this is probably the closest tournament to being a ‘home’ tournament for me, and that adds some pressure as well – people watching, cheering in Russian.”
Medvedev will face Fabian Marozsan in the quarterfinals.
Alex Michelsen and Shintaro Mochizuki also advanced on Thursday – they will face each other in the quarter-finals.
Michelsen beat Aleksandar Vukic 6-3, 6-2, while Mochizuki defeated fourth-seeded Luciano Darderi 6-3, 6-3. It was a significant win for the former junior No.1, and with it he is sure to make his Top 100 debut on Monday – he is up to No.92 in the live rankings.
