World number 107 Ilya Ivashka registered one of the biggest wins of his career against world number 6 and two-time champion Alexander Zverev.
Zverev hasn’t had the best of seasons this year and hasn’t got past the quarterfinal in any of the events in 2021. The tournament wasn’t held last year in the wake of the coronavirus and it seemed that a win here would be of immense value to Zverev’s clay-court preparations. But it was not to be as Ivashka rallied back from a set down to oust the two-time champion.
However, Ivashka himself suffered a straight-sets 4-6,1-6 defeat in the semifinals today at the hands of J. Struff, who finally halted his dream run.
What went wrong for Zverev-
The German young gun started the match in a pretty confident manner,eventually claiming the tightly fought first set in a tie break.
But,the Belarusian rallied back to break Zverev’s serve to stay in the match at 4-5 in the second set.And from that moment on,everything started going horrendously wrong for the German.
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Ivashka won nine of the final 12 games of the match to clinch a 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-3 victory on Centre Court. Ivashka capitalised on double faults late in the second set from the two-time champion and claimed the crucial break of the decider at 4-3 to earn his maiden Top 10 win.
“This match was really tough for me and I was [close to losing] in the second set,” Ivashka said in his post-match interview. “I managed well and I tried to stay in and fight until the last moment to see if he would give [me] chances and it happened.”
Ivashka owns a 6-2 record on clay this season, following runs to the AnyTech365 Andalucia Open quarter-finals in Marbella and the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell second round. Last week in Barcelona, the World No. 107 won three matches from qualifying and pushed eventual champion Rafael Nadal to a third set.
J. Struff ends Ivashka’s dream run to book a finale with Basilashvili-
Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff could barely contain his glee after victory on Saturday in Munich means he has reached his first final on the ATP tour at the eighth attempt.
The 31-year-old beat Belarusian qualifier Ilya Ivashka 6-4, 6-1 at the ATP clay-court tournament in the Bavarian capital to finally end his miserable run of semi-final defeats.
“I am very happy to have reached my first final, here in Germany of all places, in Munich,” Struff, who turned pro in 2009, told local broadcaster BR.
Struff would take on N. Basilashvili who defeated world number 24 Casper Rudd 6-1,6-2.
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