Jan-Lennard Struff Secures Maiden ATP Title On Home Soil At The BMW Open

The fourth seed, German Jan-Lennard Struff, finally secured his maiden singles title on the ATP Tour on home soil in Munich, Germany at the BMW Open. The title could not have come at a better place, home for Struff. It took the German 15 long years to finally become a singles champion on tour. Struff defeated third seed American Taylor Fritz in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3 in 79 minutes to secure the title.

© ATP Tour

It was a blistering performance by the German as he proved himself worthy of the title. He had converted 5 of 11 breakpoints and was relentless during the match, which was played in ultra cold conditions. Despite missing a crucial overhead that allowed Fritz to claim a break back to 5-3, he did not back down and claimed the win with an overhead on his final service game. The German had dispatched defending champion second seed Holger Rune in the semifinals and did not drop a set en-route to the title. 

The German became the third-oldest first-time champion on the ATP Tour at 33 years and 11 months old. Jan-Lennard Struff will move up 4 spots on the ATP Pepperstone rankings to become world number 24, just 4 spots shy of his career high ranking. He will be looking to replicate the success at the Madrid Open in the coming week where he has to defend 600 points as he made the finals as a lucky-loser last year.