Friday’s semifinal at the Mutua Madrid Open between Jan-Lennard Struff and Aslan Karatsev will mark the second career meeting between the two players.
It will also be their second meeting at this same tournament. Not just at the Madrid Masters in general–at this exact same 2023 Madrid Masters.
That’s right; Struff and Karatsev faced each other in the final round of qualifying nine days ago. Karatsev won 6-4, 6-2 to earn his place in the main draw. Struff got a lucky-loser spot when Constant Lestienne withdrew. A little more than a week later, both guys have improbably made their way to the semifinals and they will go head-to-head again on Friday night.
“Aslan is playing amazing this week so far and he beat me pretty easily in qualies, I need to say,” Struff commented. “I didn’t play the best tennis in that match, but he made me play not good I feel like. I think we need to analyze it now, focus on the match tomorrow, and I hope I can do better.”
The 65th-ranked German is the third lucky loser to ever reach the semifinals of a Masters 1000 event, following Thomas Johansson (Toronto in 2004) and Lucas Pouille (Rome in 2016).
ridiculous