The phoenix Struff

The German had a great first round, coming out of nowhere; I really didn’t see a guy in a confidence crisis who hadn’t won a match since Dubai at all..

Utter nonsense for 4 games and then a masterclass, Struff took a while to get into his match against Muller but once he did, he really played some great tennis. The kind where his serve hurts and so does the weight of his forehand, I even found him solid on the backhand side and defensively, which is usually rare for him. Maybe the magic of Madrid is kicking in; in any case I saw a dangerous version of the German, who had a great attitude even when he was down 4–0. We have to be cautious since the German has only played ONE good match so far, but it was so good that I want to believe.

Especially since this second round is very manageable for him, Michelsen is one of the most beatable seeds at the moment. The American doesn’t like clay and is coming off two fairly one-sided losses against Popyrin and Rinderknech, two offensive guys with good serves. Not the kind of matches where he’s supposed to get thrashed, even on clay, and yet he did. His flat shots don’t do much damage and he moves laboriously on the surface. I’m not excited BUT Madrid might be the only clay tournament where we can expect good performances from him.

It’s still speculative on Michelsen’s side, whereas we’ve already seen a great first-round match from Struff, in a really old-school mode...