“Unfortunately, he destroyed me. He made very few errors, and I couldn’t attack,” Jan-Lennard Struff admitted at the US Open this year after falling to eventual semifinalist Novak Djokovic in the R16. Since that humbling night, the 35-year-old German’s path has turned stormy, first-round exits haunting him even at the Challenger level. Villena brought no mercy, Roanne offered heartbreak, and Bratislava twisted the knife with a tight opener lost. But the cruelest blow struck in Athens, where Alexandre Muller ’s relentless rally in the deciding set shattered Struff’s hopes and his racket, at the Hellenic Championship, echoing pure frustration across the court.

Fifth-seeded Frenchman Alexandre Muller staged a stormy comeback under the Athenian lights, shaking off the sting of a broken

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