Struff Stuns Top Seed Fils Twice From Behind to Reach Brussels Final

TL;DR: Jan-Lennard Struff twice fought back from a break down in the deciding set, including when Arthur Fils served for the match, to beat the top seed 6-4, 6-7(7), 7-6(5) and reach the Brussels final. At 36, the German is the second-oldest finalist in the event’s history and will face Tallon Griekspoor on Sunday at Palais 5.

Some players win matches. Struff won this one twice, because Fils kept handing him a lost cause and he kept handing it back. The decider broke against him, then broke for him, then broke against him again, and each time the 36-year-old found one more break of serve. By the time the tiebreak arrived, the pattern was set: Fils would get close, and Struff would refuse to go away.

How did the deciding set swing back and forth?

It swung three times, and Struff survived all three swings. Tennis Majors reports Fils broke in the opening game of the decider and led 2-0, but Struff broke straight back for 2-2. Fils broke again for 5-4 and served for the match, but Struff broke back at the third attempt. In the tiebreak, a mini-break at 5-5 gave the German a match point, and he converted it on his own serve.

The match had already tested both men before the decider. Struff took the first set after breaking in the third game, surviving three set points against him at 4-5 before serving it out. Fils took the second set tiebreak 9-7, but only after leading 4-1 and being pegged back to 4-4, then needing four set points to close it. Tennis Temple notes Fils won 81 percent of points behind his first serve and hit 14 aces, which makes the defeat harder to explain and the comeback harder to dismiss: Struff beat the serve, not just the man.

The whole match lasted two hours and 18 minutes, and it ended with Struff’s own summary of his late career. “It is just never quitting and trying one more time, just fighting, hanging in there,” he said. “Very happy. It was a very tough match.”

Why does this final matter so much for Struff?

Because hard courts have been the one surface where semifinals ended his week. Tennis Majors reports he had lost all seven of his previous hard-court semifinals, and this is his fifth ATP Tour final overall and his first since winning his only title in Munich in 2024. At 36 and ranked No. 58, he is the second-oldest finalist in the event’s history.

It is also his third win over a top-10 player this season, after Alexander Bublik in the first round at Roland-Garros and Daniil Medvedev in the third round at Wimbledon, where he became the oldest man in the Open Era to reach a first Grand Slam quarterfinal. Medvedev’s own autumn ended turbulently, with a disqualification at the China Open after a ball struck a spectator in the eye. The Fils win levels their head-to-head at 1-1, after Fils won 6-3, 6-4 at the Paris Masters in 2024. Struff’s week in Brussels started with wins over Marcos Giron, Belgian lucky loser Gauthier Onclin and No. 6 seed Zizou Bergs, the last Belgian in the draw, and each win made the next one slightly less surprising. Bergs himself had produced one of the shocks of the autumn when he beat Alcaraz in Shanghai and handed Zverev the year-end No. 1, so Struff’s quarterfinal win over him was no routine assignment. The Brussels crowd has had plenty to cheer all week, including David Goffin’s repeatedly postponed farewell in front of a home crowd, and Struff’s run has given them one more reason to stay loud.

Did Fils lose anything besides the match?

No, and that is the strange footnote to his defeat. Tennis Majors reports the 100 ranking points from his semifinal will lift Fils to a career-high No. 8 on Monday, and he moves to seventh in the Race to Turin, overtaking Frances Tiafoe. He was the top seed at an ATP Tour event for the first time, and he was chasing his fourth final of the season after a walkover from Jaume Munar and a 6-4, 7-6(12) win over No. 5 seed Alex Michelsen.

Fils served for the match and lost it. He will still wake up on Monday as the world No. 8. Both facts are true, and the gap between them is what makes the result sting: the ranking rewards the week, but the trophy was one hold of serve away.

Who stands between Struff and the title?

Tallon Griekspoor, who has beaten him every time they have met. Griekspoor beat third seed Francisco Cerundolo 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) in the other semifinal, and Tennis Watcher reports he has won all three of their previous meetings, most recently in two tiebreaks in Doha last year. He is the first Dutch player to reach the final in Brussels, after a season that included a hamstring injury in Dubai, first-round losses at all four Grand Slams and three straight first-round losses in China.

Why does the venue matter on Sunday?

Sunday’s final is played at Palais 5, which brings this week’s other Brussels story into the same arena. This site covered the overnight switch from the ING Arena to Palais 5 and the fans who paid 46 euros for heavily obstructed views, and the final is played in that same switched venue. Struff said he needs to recover before the final, adding: “For the final, I will try to be in the best shape I can.” After two hours and 18 minutes of comebacks, recovery is not a formality. It is the next obstacle, and on this week’s evidence, it is not one to bet against him clearing.