2024 BMW Munich Open Final PREVIEW: Taylor FRITZ back on track, set to face home hero Jan-Lennard STRUFF for clay court supremacy

Taylor Fritz (No. 15) and Jan-Lennard Struff (No. 28) will face off for the title in the BMW Munich Open Final. The American secured a comfortable victory against the 2019 champion Christian Garin by 6-3, 6-4 and will play the 13th final of his career (7 titles, 5 runners-up), although this will be his first on clay.

Fritz had a bye in the first round as the third seed and made his debut in the round of 16 against the Spanish player Alejandro Moro Cañas, securing a 6-3, 6-1 victory. In the quarterfinals, he had to come back from behind against the 6th seed Jack Draper, clinching the victory in the third-set tie-break by 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(1).

On the other side, Struff will seek his first professional title after losing in three finals, including the Munich Open in 2021 against Nikoloz Basilashvili. The German has had some of his best results on clay, including reaching the final of the 2023 Madrid Open, where he lost to Carlos Alcaraz.

The path for the 4th seed was challenging with Botic van de Zandschulp as his opponent in the opening match (runner-up in 2022 and 2023), and he secured a comfortable victory by 7-6(0), 6-4. The quarterfinals saw him face the 5th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime on Friday in a match that was interrupted in the second set and resumed on Saturday, concluding with the local's triumph by 7-5, 6-4.

In the last match of the day, Struff returned to the court against the second seed Holger Rune and crushed him by 6-2, 6-0 in just 45 minutes. Rune was 11-0 in Munich and was the champion of the last two years, while Struff secured his first victory over a top-20 player this year.

So far, Struff and Fritz have faced each other on 2 occasions, with a head-to-head record of 1-1, although none of the matches were on clay. The locals once again have a representative in the final. The last German champion was Alexander Zverev back in 2018.