Die-hard Kukushkin survives Struff in the 3rd round in London

Mikhail Kukushkin survives Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3 7-6⁵ 4-6 7-5 in the 3^rd round in London on Saturday . Kukushkin will play Nishikori.

Score, report, and key facts

1^st set.

There was not much difference between them in this set with the exception of 1 break that Mikhail conquered in the 4^th game (3-1) before winning the set (6-3).

2^nd set.

Neither player conceded a service game during this set. Therefore the affair had to be decided at the tiebreak. Finally, the Kazakhstani won the tiebreak at 5.

The Kazakhstani missed the chance to break Struff in the 7^th game when he had 3 consecutive chances (0-40).

3^rd set.

The set was pretty even as both sides managed to hold the serve. The only difference was 1 break that the German conquered in the 3^rd game (2-1) before winning the set (6-4).

4^th set.

Mikhail won the set after recovering from 1 break down. In fact, after conceding his serve in the 7^th (3-4) game, Mikhail broke back in the 8^th (4-4) and in the 12^th (7-5) game before winning the set 7-5.

At the end of the match, the Kazakhstani scored 155 points vs. Jan-Lennard’s 154 points.

Kukushkin won this match even if he had some problems in converting his break points since he converted only 23% (3/13). On the other side, Jan-Lennard was battling in converting his break points since he converted only 13% of his break points (2/15). That was one of the key issues for his defeat.

After this contest, the head to head between Kukushkin and Struff is 1-3 for Jan-Lennard.

Next Match: Mikhail Kukushkin vs. Kei Nishikori – H2H and stats

Kukushkin will square off with Nishikori in the 4^th round.

This will be the 10^th time that Mikhail Kukushkin and Kei Nishikori face off. The head to head is 9-0 for Nishikori (see full H2H stats), 1-0 on grass.

The last time that they played, Nishikori won 6-4 6-3 in the semifinal in Vienna back in 2018.