(Reuters) – World number two Daniil Medvedev’s Wimbledon preparations suffered a setback on Tuesday when he was bundled out by Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff 7-6(3) 6-3 in the opening round of the ATP 500 tournament in Halle.
In his first match of the grasscrout season, top seed Medvedev made a bright start to open up a commanding 5-2 lead in the opening set before Struff roared back into the contest.
World number 45 Struff saved a set point to draw level and force a tiebreak where he grabbed an early lead to take the opening set.
The match was one-way traffic in the second set as Struff broke his Russian opponent twice to secure the biggest victory of his career.
Struff has now won 10 of his last 15 matches, which includes an impressive run to a maiden ATP Tour final in Munich followed by his first Grand Slam last-16 appearance at the French Open last week.
Medvedev, who suffered a quarter-final exit at the French Open, will hope he rediscovers his touch on grass before he resumes his pursuit of a maiden Grand Slam title at Wimbledon starting June 28.
He has never progressed beyond the third round at the grasscourt major since his main draw debut in 2017.
(Reporting by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
