PARIS (Reuters) – Argentine counter-puncher Diego Schwartzman overcame a sluggish start to book his place in the French Open quarter-finals with a 7-6(9) 6-4 7-5 victory over Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff on Monday.
Having reached the fourth round without dropping a set, Schwartzman was uncharacteristically sloppy in the opening exchanges and littered the court with unforced errors, allowing Struff to break twice and take a 5-1 lead in the opening set.
But the world number 10 soon found his rhythm thanks to some crafty shot placement and superb defence as he fended off seven set points before taking the first set himself.
Big-serving Struff never quite recovered from that setback and was pushed around the court by a string of pinpoint groundstrokes from Schwartzman, who claimed a crucial break in the 10th game before taking the second set.
After a double exchange of breaks, Schwartzman then took control with a third break in the final set to secure victory in just over three hours on Court Suzanne Lenglen.
(Reporting by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Hugh Lawson)