dpa
Berlin
Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff surprised fourth-seed Casper Ruud with a 6-1, 7-6 (8-6) win and advanced to the quarter-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters on Thursday.
Struff missed the chance to claim victory when the score was 5-2 in the second set, but kept his nerve to seal the win in the tiebreak.
"It was brutal. I played an amazing game until the 5-2. And then I got a bit nervous. I was thinking about getting things done and winning and that triggered something in me,” he said.
In the quarter-finals, he will meet fifth-seed Andrey Rublev, who defeated Karen Khachanov 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.
Struff’s previous best result in Monte Carlo was reaching the last 16, which he did in 2017 and 2018 but was defeated in both occasions.
This is only the second time he makes it to the quarter-finals of a Masters 1000 tournament.