Will incredible stretch of final-set tie-breaks help Struff against Sinner?

Some players remember the first time they faced an opponent. Jan-Lennard Struff recalls the first time he read about his next foe at the BNP Paribas Open: reigning Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner.

“I read an interview from him after he won [an ATP Challenger Tour event in] Bergamo, I think he was 17 or 18,” Struff told ATPTour.com. “He said something like, for him, all the people in the area where he grew up, Andreas Seppi was a role model. He said that he admired him his whole career and he's very big in that area. But he will try and hopes he can go even further in the rankings.”

Now Sinner is the No. 2 player in the PIF ATP Live Rankings and undefeated in the 2024 season. It did not take long for Struff, a veteran from Germany, to see the Italian’s potential.

“We practised in Monte-Carlo one time together and I thought, ‘Yeah, he has great strokes’,” Struff said. “He was definitely playing very well and he had the game to go very deep... You never know how good, but with him you knew he was going to be very good.”

The 33-year-old has played most of the sport’s biggest stars. But while they have practised together, their third-round encounter will be their first Lexus ATP Head2Head showdown.

“He is hitting hard, I would say so. Very hard. Very consistent. Returning well, it's tough. Tough player, a tough matchup,” Struff said. “Sixteen matches in a row. For sure he has had an unbelievable run.”

If the match is close, Struff will have plenty of recent experience to rely on. After defeating Borna Coric in a final-set tie-break in the second round, seven of the World No. 25’s 10 completed matches this year have gone to a final-set tie-break.

“It was kind of in my head [against Coric]. Okay, I’d played a lot of long sets, matches this year. So as you come at 3-2, 3-all you feel like, ‘Okay, this could be a possible tie-break’,” Struff said. “It maybe helps if you've been in there. It doesn't help that you lost some. It helps if you win some for sure. But I thought about this because I played last week against Hurkacz a very close one, was a bit unlucky I think at 6/4 with a netcord.

“Borna played last week as well against [Jakub] Mensik. So I thought, ‘Okay, we both had not great tie-break third-set results last week’. So it was close today and I'm just happy to get the win today, because it was a very tough battle. It was important for me to win this one.”

According to the German, it is key to always keep how the match has gone in mind entering a final-set tie-break.

“Try to win it, it's what everybody tries to do. But it's tough,” Struff said. “It depends a bit how you feel on court. Sometimes you have the momentum, sometimes not. It depends a bit on the games before if you led by a break, if you're down a break, how the last weeks were, so it's always different.”

Struff is 4-3 in final-set tie-breaks this and has alternated wins and losses.

“If you won a lot, it goes maybe bit easier from the hand,” Struff said. “If you lost, it's maybe tougher. You think a bit more and it's just normal that some points in some matches of the last couple weeks have some effect on this.”

The winner of 12 matches against Top 10 opponents knows he will need to be at his best to end Sinner’s undefeated streak. But he is excited for the challenge against someone he first read about in February 2019 when the Italian was outside the world’s Top 500.

“As I saw the draw. I thought, ‘Okay, I really want to have this match’,” Struff said. “You want to play against these guys for sure. It's going to be a very tough match, but I'm looking forward to playing.”