Struff beats Shapovalov in the 1st round of the Mercedes Cup

The world no.38 Jan-Lennard Struff won the first match on grass this season by beating the 25^th ranked Canadian Denis Shapovalov in the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart.

The German beat the Canadian Shapovalov 7-5 6-4 in 1 hour and 25 minutes.

The Match

In the first set, both the players did well to win their service games till the 10^th game to level at 5-5. Struff broke in the 11^th game to lead 6-5 and then winning the next service game and the set by 7-5.

Struff started with a bang in the second set breaking the service of the Canadian in the opening game (1-0). In the 2^nd game (the longest one of the match), Struff saved 4 break points to lead 2-0. This pretty much decided the match in favour of Struff who held on to his next service games to win the set 6-4.