Struff beats Shelton in Madrid

Ben Shelton looked good early on at the Madrid Open but eventually, he was unable to handle the sudden rise of Jan-Lennard Struff who turned it around 4-6 7-6(4) 7-5.

Shelton has been playing a lot on clay but he's not having a lot of success because he has never played on the surface before touching down in Portugal for the Estoril Open. The youngster was very good against Struff early on taking the opening set 6-4 largely due to his serve which was huge in these thin air conditions.

He didn't lose a single point after his first serve in that opening set and lost only 5 altogether not allowing a single break point. The second was a pretty close one as Struff was able to counter Shelton well with his serve and we didn't see a single break point on either side. The tiebreak was well-contested by Struff who ended up winning it 7-4.

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In the final one, Struff was finally able to break his opponent for the first time in a match. We also saw the match paused by rain but it didn't impact Struff in the match. It was only at 5-3 that he allowed the first break points to Shelton and the youngster was able to use it and make it 5-4. Still, the German held and finished it off 7-5.