10th seed Diego Schwartzman triumphed over German Jen-Lennard Struff in the fourth round of the French Open, 7-6(9) 6-4 7-5. At the end of the first set, the pair seemed to be evenly matched, with the match poised to go beyond three sets. The German was playing the tournament of his life as he upset a struggling Andrey Rublev before taking out the rising Spanish youngster Carlos Alcaraz Garfia in the third round.
Diego Schwartzman vs Jan-Lennard Struff
The first set was a saga of unforced errors and double faults, many of which came off Struff’s racquet. The set was laced with long rallies as neither of the two was willing to move into the net. Although the German drew first blood, he looked shaky and unpredictable as the set progressed. He could not convert six of his eight break point opportunities. At one point, the Argentine was trailing 1-5. Eventually, Schwartzman broke back late, saving six set points (four of those at 1-5) to force a tie breaker. As they entered the tie-break, Struff was the first to find a mini-service break. This was followed by back-to-back service breaks as both lost their service points.
Finally, Schwartzman managed to steal the set 7-6(9), but not without having to face another set point in the tie breaker. That was a very closely fought set.
Firing more winners in to start the second set, the German broke first. But, unlike in the first set, the Argentine broke right back to level the score 2-2. He then appeared to be in full control as he took the set 6-4 before breaking early in the third set. There were some twists and turns, but the Argentine was never really threatened in the final set, taking it 7-5.
Schwartzman is looking good at Roland Garros, and has not dropped a set in the first four matches. He will go in very confident for the quarterfinal match, where he faces either Rafael Nadal or Jannik Sinner.
Main Photo from Getty.
