Jan-Lennard Struff was leading his best tennis life entering the Wimbledon 2026 quarterfinals against Jannik Sinner. The 36-year-old German had never even reached the quarters at a major before. Whatever happened against the Italian was fine. Struff was already a winner.
This allowed him to play loose as he had nothing to lose. The opening set stayed even, with both Sinner and Struff winning their service games relatively easily. That was until Sinner got a break at 5-all and then held to win the opener 7-5.
This is, of course, what great players do. They can elevate their play in the highest-stress moments of a match. It is often what separates the best from the mediocre.
Jannik Sinner defeats Jan-Lennard Struff in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon 2026
Which is why what happened near the beginning of the second set was strange. Sinner got a break at 1-all and would presumably sweep into the third set on his way to winning a fairly straightforward match. Instead, Struff broke right back after getting the first break point opportunity of the match. The set and match were back on.
Struff had an excellent game plan throughout the first two sets, and he was executing it well. He would serve and volley as much as possible, forcing Sinner to try to hit winners past him. The strategy was good enough to keep Struff in the match and maybe give him the chance to steal a game or three.
Sinner, the 2025 Wimbledon champion, hasn't had the easiest run to the quarterfinals. His first-round match went five sets, and while he's won in straight sets in his last three matches, three of those sets went to tie-breaks.
Three of Struff's four matches leading to the quarters had gone five sets. As Sinner struggles at times in the heat, who was going to win the quarterfinal match on a hot London day might come down to which player was in better physical condition.
After a few tense holds of serve, the second set finished in a tie-break, and Sinner got an early mini-break. He would ride that to a 7-4 win to take a two-sets-to-love lead.
The third set followed the same difficult path as the first two sets for Jan-Lennard Struff. He kept himself in the set, even pushing the Italian to hold serve at times. With Sinner leading 4-3 and with Struff serving, the Italian got yet another late-set break and then held to finish off the match 6-3.
Jannik Sinner will next play the winner of the Wimbledon quarterfinal match between Novak Djokovic and Felix Auger-Aliassime. Djokovic has won the grass-court major seven times. Auger-Aliassime's best previous result was reaching the quarters in 2021.
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