The first round of ATP 500 tournament (Mercedes Cup) in Stuttgart, Germany. We’ll have an interesting match for the opening day as Canadian Denis Shapovalov will face up against German Jan-Lennard Struff. To have more insights on this ATP Denis Shapovalov vs Jan-Lennard Struff match please check out the preview below.
Denis Shapovalov
Denis is one of the brightest stars of the new generation. The guy is only 20 years old and he’s ranked 25th already. He can play solid rallies, can serve, has a great and strong backhand and is a great player overall who has the potential to become Top5 or even Top3 in the near future. The main problem with Shapovalov is that he just can’t play well on clay. He’s played 8 games on clay this season and won only 2 of them. Compared to matches on the hard court where he played 13 and won 9 of them it shows a lot. Given that grass is more similar to hard than clay it’s expected that Shapovalov will show up his true capabilities after a disappointing run on clay grounds.
Jan-Lennard Struff
The totally different situation on Jan-Lennard side here. 29 years old local at this tournament is definitely loving playing on clay. This is the ground he shines the most. The most memorable run this season was in Barcelona where Struff managed to reach the quarter-final where he defeated Goffin and Tsitsipas on the way. This is a good season for Struff so far and we have to see what he’ll show on a different ground. Not many players have played a lot of official matches on grass given how short the season of this specific ground is and Struff hasn’t earned his name on it yet but if he keeps performing at the similar level he did this season he might surprise a lot of people again.
Denis Shapovalov vs Jan-Lennard Struff H2H
Struff is leading H2H 2 wins to 1 and both of them on clay.
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