Struff moves into quarterfinals

In addition to the German, tournament number 2 Taylor Fritz (USA) and veteran Richard Gasquet also made it to the last eight with his 600th match victory.

Jan-Lennard Struff (ATP No. 24) broke the spell at just the right time and celebrated his first victory in his fifth match against American Tommy Paul (ATP 16). Under thunderous applause, Struff converted his third match point after 90 minutes with an ace for a hard-fought 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) victory. In the second set, Struff was already down by a break, but managed the re-break and found his first match point at 6-5 and Paul serving, but was unable to convert it. A few minutes later, the time had come and the Warsteiner was able to rejoice over his move into the quarterfinals of the BOSS OPEN. "It was a great day today: good weather, great atmosphere. I'm very happy to have won in front of my home crowd." Struff shrugged off the pressure of being the last German to pull the coals out of the fire: "Of course, you always want to play well at home. I've had matches in Germany in the past where I would have liked to do better, but that's part of the sport."

Surprisingly, Struff will not face the tournament's No. 1, Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas (ATP 5), in the quarterfinals, but French veteran Richard Gasquet (ATP 55), who knocked Tsitsipas out of the competition 7-6 (8), 2-6, 7-5. Tsitsipas seemed to live up to his role as favorite with a quick 3-0 lead in the first set, but Gasquet still managed to force a tie-break, which he finally won by a narrow margin. In the second set, it was the same picture: Tsitsipas quickly went up 3-0, but this time the Greek was able to maintain the advantage. In the third set, both players held serve until 6:5. Gasquet finally made use of his fifth match point. For the Frenchman, it was his 600th match win on the tour. Only three active players (Nadal, Djokovic and Murray) have more wins to their credit. "600 wins is an incredible mark," Gasquet said after the match. "I've been playing on the tour for 20 years and I hope I can add a few more."

Taylor Fritz, the tournament's No. 2 (ATP 8), made it to the final eight. The 25-year-old Californian defeated Aslan Karatsev 7-6 (4), 6-3 in his fourth appearance at Stuttgart's Weissenhof. Fritz attributed his success to the two most important components in the game on grass: "I served well today and finally didn't get a break, as happened a lot in the past weeks. The return got better as the match went on." Fritz was back in Stuttgart for the first time since 2018 and has big plans this year: "The older you get, the higher your own standards become. I'm a better player than the last time I played here."

In Friday's quarterfinals, Fritz will face Hungarian qualifier Marton Fucsovics (ATP 86), who defeated Chinese Yibing Wu (ATP 64) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. Fucsovics' last ATP quarterfinal was exactly a year ago, also at the Weissenhof.