ATP Tournament in Stuttgart, Round of 16, Thursday, 15.06.2023
A big slip-up after fabulous performances – and at the French Open of all things! Jan-Lennard Struff now wants to prepare for Wimbledon in the best possible way, and the tournament in Stuttgart comes just at the right time.
After a commanding start, he now has to duel with the fifth seeded player and is the underdog at Bet-at-Home, even if only by a narrow margin.
In my Struff Paul tip, I will now reveal why I rather expect an American success.
The world number 24 doesn’t let short-lived downs stop him! Jan-Lennard Struff had travelled to Paris as something of a secret favourite, had been upsetting the big boys for weeks and had come within a whisker of winning the Masters in Madrid against Carlos Alcaraz.
But at the French Open, of all places, the player from Warstein could no longer control his nerves and lost in five sets to Jiri Lehecka in the first round. But he doesn’t want to be annoyed by this setback for long.
Wimbledon is coming up soon, and Struff should like the fast grass just as much. He attracted attention in Stuttgart four years ago when he reached the semi-finals, and his fans are now hoping for a repeat performance.
Struff has already mastered the first hurdle with aplomb, winning 6-1, 6-4 against Zhizhen Zhang. Not a matter of course, after all, the Chinese had won a set against the eventual finalist Casper Ruud in Paris.
The German only allowed one break chance, 81% won points on the first serve and 75% on the second were very strong. In addition, Struff used four of his six opportunities to break himself.
Now he will meet an opponent against whom he has already lost four times. That makes the rate of defeats a full 100 per cent! Struff and Paul also met twice in 2023.
1-6, 6-7, 2-6 at the Australian Open and 3-6, 3-6 in Miami, in both matches the German had no chance. He has never won a single set against Paul, but he still comes off relatively well with our betting providers on Thursday.
He is behind with 2.30 to 1.60, which is not a big gap. Paul is number 16 in the world rankings and is playing in the tournament in Stuttgart for the first time ever.
The 26-year-old also experienced a bitter disappointment in Paris, already failing in the 2nd round to Nicolas Jarry with a loss in four sets. Since the Masters in Miami in March, he has only won two matches in a row once!
Not exactly the odds the US American wants, so it would be all the more important for him to advance to the quarter-finals in Stuttgart. To start with, he had managed a smooth 6-3, 6-4 against Benjamin Bonzi on the Neckar.
The service statistics were outstanding, to say the least. 96% of points won on the first and 93% on the second, not a single break chance for the opponent? The most Paul could be blamed for was that he only used two of his nine opportunities.
Paul can serve incredibly well, but he doesn’t always succeed. He must now manage to make the leap from clay to grass, because Struff is likely to be a much tougher opponent than Bonzi was before
My Struff Paul Tip
An opponent he has lost all four duels against? Jan-Lennard Struff doesn’t face the best of circumstances when he faces Tommy Paul on Thursday.
Both showed a very confident side in their 1st rounds, served very well. I can imagine a close match, but since Paul has not yet lost a single set against Struff, I decide to place the following singles bet:
Paul wins against Struff!
