Jan-Lennard Struff prevailed over Christopher Eubanks in the opening round of the Swiss Indoors Basel, coming through a closely contested battle to win in straight sets, 7-6 (7), 6-4.

The German player has had a tough time as of late after a strong start to 2023 that saw him reach the final of the Miami Open, the Madrid Open, and the Stuttgart Open. Following this success, Struff sustained a hip injury that forced him to miss a significant part of the season, including Wimbledon and the US Open.

However, he was able to return to the Asian Swing and has now made a strong start to his run at the ATP 500 tournament in Switzerland.

The match began with both players seeming pretty evenly matched in terms of serves and unforced errors, which showed on the scoreboard as they consistently held despite a few break chances for both.

Eubanks built up a 30-0 lead in Struff's service game while the American was leading 6-5 in the first set, but the 33-year-old fought back to hold and force a tiebreak. Struff then won the first mini-break of the tie only for Eubanks to gain it back almost immediately.

As the tiebreak went on, Struff got his first set point at 6-5 but Eubanks proceeded to pull off his ninth ace of the match to emphatically equalize at 6-6. This safety was short-lived though, as Struff managed to edge ahead again and ultimately secured the opener after a strong return drew an error from his opponent.

The second set began in a similar way to the first, with both players holding and the set staying on serve. However, Struff was able to get ahead at just the right time again, building up two match points on Eubank's service game while the former was leading 6-5.

Although Eubanks was able to save these points to bring it to a deuce, Struff got the advantage after the ball just made it over the net, and ended up with a straight-sets win after Eubanks hit the ball into the net on the next point. He will face either fourth seed Hubert Hurkacz or Dusan Lajovic in the next round.