Lennard Struff advanced to the quarter-finals of the Monte Carlo Tennis Masters on Thursday after upsetting fourth seed Casper Ruud 6-1, 7-6(6).
Struff, a skilled player, thus continued his ascent following a major injury.
The German, once ranked 29th, tumbled all the way to 168th after suffering a foot injury last year during a game at the Miami Masters — an injury that forced him out of the league for more two months.
Struff is having a strong start to the season and cracked the top 100 again last month, but he hadn’t beaten a top 10 player in the world this season before clashing with Ruud on Monaco clay.
His aggressive style allowed him to get 37 winners and 23 points at the net against the Norwegian, who was the victim of four service breaks.
Struff also ended Ruud’s nine-game winning streak on clay. The 2022 French Open finalist has won his last two tournaments on this playing surface: in Gstaad, in July, and in Estoril, last week.
Struff will now cross swords with the winner of the duel between Russians Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov.
Elsewhere, seventh seed Jannik Sinner came from behind and snubbed seven match points against him to topple 10th seed Hubert Hurkacz 3-6, 7-6(6), 6 -1.
Sixth seed Holger Rune reached the quarter-finals without even having to make a single swing with his racquet, as Italian Matteo Berrettini withdrew from the tournament due to injury.
Sinner emerged victorious in a 22-shot rally as he trailed 6-5 in the tiebreaker to stay in the game. Hurkacz lost the next two points and threw his racquet in frustration, before losing his temper completely in the third set.
World No. 1 Novak Djokovic will take on Italian Lorenzo Musetti later today, while third seed Daniil Medvedev will face 13th seed Alexander Zverev.
Rafael Nadal and world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz withdrew from the tournament last week, as did Quebecer Félix Auger-Aliassime. Nadal won the Monte Carlo Masters a record 11 times, including eight in a row between 2005 and 2012. The holder of 22 career Grand Slam titles has been plagued by a left hip flexor tendon injury since the Australian Open.