Jan-Lennard Struff sent Alexander Bublik home from the French Open on Tuesday with a four-set win that carried him into the second round in Paris. The 36-year-old German beat the world No. 10 7:5, 6:7 (6:8), 6:4, 7:5 and now goes on to face Jaime Faria or Denis Shapovalov.
Struff did it the hard way against one of the biggest names in his section of the draw. After losing the second set in a tiebreak, he steadied himself and closed out the match on a court where he said the crowd made the difference. “Ich bin glücklich. Das war ein toughes Match. Es waren schwierige Bedingungen,” he said, adding: “Eine überragende Unterstützung hier auf dem Court, es waren so viele Deutsche da. Einfach überragend.” Boris Becker called it “ein ganz wichtiger Sieg für unseren Mann.”
The result matters because Struff had arrived in Paris on the back foot. He had lost in the first round in Hamburg shortly before the clay-court major, and Bublik was not just any opponent: Struff had already beaten him clearly in Paris in 2024. This time, though, he had to dig deeper. The win also keeps German interest alive in the men’s draw after Alexander Zverev had already cleared the opening hurdle, while Daniel Altmaier was still to play Félix Auger-Aliassime on Tuesday.
For Struff, the victory adds another chapter to a late-career run that has repeatedly shown he can still trouble elite players on the biggest stages. He reached the French Open round of 16 in 2019 and did so again in 2021, and a repeat of that sort of run is still possible if he can carry Tuesday’s level into the next round. The draw now gives him a chance to build on a match that asked for patience, power and nerve in equal measure.
Laura Siegemund, by contrast, was knocked out of the singles by Naomi Osaka after a 3:6, 6:7 (3:7) defeat. The 38-year-old world No. 47 said she was “enttäuscht” by the loss, but felt she had at least made Osaka uncomfortable. “Ich habe sie definitiv geärgert, ich habe das gemacht, was ich gut kann,” she said, before adding, “Habe ich heute mein bestes Tennis gespielt? Nein.” Siegemund was still scheduled to continue in women’s doubles and mixed doubles after the singles exit.
That split day for German tennis leaves Struff as the headline result in Paris, while Siegemund’s defeat underlines how narrow the margins can be on the first week of a Grand Slam. For Altmaier, who remains on court later in the day against Auger-Aliassime, the task is now clear: keep the German line moving forward, or leave Struff’s win as the day’s lone major success.
