Jan-Lennard Struff prevails over Alexander Ward in the quarter-finals – Madrid Challenger 2012 CH
German contender, Jan-Lennard Struff, successfully battle into the semi-finals of the Madrid Challenger 2012 in Spain. The summed up his 7-5, 6-4 triumph against the British native, Alexander Ward, on Friday.
The right-hander German brought his experience into play and battled hard to dominate his rival. He maintained his top serve since the start of the match but faced a stiff resistance. He commenced a sloppy beginning in the opener
and was unable to retain his first serve. Ward moved smartly and pocketed the initial two without any delay. For the major portion of the set, he topped the score line and confidently held his initial serve. Gradually moving towards the end, the German broke
his rival’s serve and evened out the scores to 5-all. He quickly jumped forward and grabbed the last two games, stamping a 7-5 score.
The 22-year-old German fired two aces and maintained an average initial serve precision of 57 percent, converting 18 of 23 first and eight of 17 second delivery points. On the other hand, his rival fired three aces with 59 percent
initial serve accuracy. He attained 17 of 22 first and just five of 15 second delivery points.
The world number 440, Ward, dkept struggling to maintain his intensity in the subsequent set. Fortunately, he got the coveted break in the start and jumped to a 2-0 lead. However, his serve died down, Struff levelled the score
line twice i.e. in the fourth and sixth game respectively. Regardless of losing his edge in the set, Ward displayed his composure but his German contender was more focused. Eventually, Struff craved out the win with a 6-4 score after cashing two break chances
in the later part of the set.
Ranked 263rd in the ATP World Tour Rankings, Struff had 58 percent first serve with a reasonable score of 13 of 19 first and six of 14 second serve points. The right-hander British bombarded his rival with 62 percent
initial serve accuracy with 15 of 26 first but only four of 16 second delivery points. He only capitalized on two of three break points presented and the German challenger secured just three of the nine points.
For the next match of ATP Challenger Struff will contest against the second seeded, Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo.
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