Jan-Lennard Struff beat Arthur Fils 6-4 6-7(7) 7-6(5) in the semifinal of the European Open in Brussels and will play Tallon Griekspoor in today's final. The German knocked out the tournament's top seed, a Top 10 player, in a match settled only by the third-set tie-break.
For Struff it is a historic milestone: according to the ATP he is the first German to reach the final of this event, and it is his first ATP final since winning in Munich in 2024.
The European Open is an indoor ATP 250 that began on 19 October, with 28 players from 13 nations in the draw. The winner earns 250 points and the runner-up 165, numbers that matter a great deal to players sitting between 55th and 60th in the rankings, as today's two finalists do.
Yesterday's match started perfectly for Struff, who took the first set 6-4 with solid serving and aggressive returning. Fils did not panic and levelled in the second set: after a tense tie-break, which he won 7-6(7), the semifinal went to a decider.
The finale was a thriller. According to the ATP, Struff was a break down twice in the final set; at 4-5, with Fils serving for the match, the German broke to love and levelled at 5-5. In the tie-break he kept his nerve and closed it out 7-5 after two hours and 18 minutes.
Afterwards Struff thanked the crowd. "It was an unreal match," he said after the match, as reported by the ATP, adding: "I managed to come back from a break down twice in the third set." Simple words for a comeback that sums up his day.
The German's run in Brussels has been getting stronger. He began by beating Marcos Giron 7-6(3) 7-6(3), then got past Belgium's Gauthier Onclin 6-4 6-2 in the round of 16 and Zizou Bergs 6-3 7-6(6) in the quarterfinals. With Fils, that is four wins in a row, three of them with at least one tie-break in the score.
To grasp how much this result matters, look at his season. Struff reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals, worth 400 points, and on 13 July hit his career-best ranking of No. 41. Since then he has lost ground: in Beijing he went out in the round of 16 against Daniil Medvedev (6-4 6-3), and in Shanghai in the second round, again against Medvedev (4-6 6-4 6-3).
For Fils the result is bitter too, though his week was far from wasted. The Frenchman reached the round of 16 thanks to Jaume Munar's walkover, then beat Alex Michelsen 6-4 7-6(12) in the quarterfinals, in a very long tie-break. The semifinal earns him 100 points, in a season in which he won the Cincinnati Masters 1000, beating Frances Tiafoe 6-3 1-6 6-0 in the final.
After Cincinnati, though, Fils's path got bumpier: in Tokyo he was stopped in the quarterfinals by Valentin Vacherot (7-5 4-6 6-4) and in Shanghai in the third round by Botic Van De Zandschulp (7-5 6-4). Brussels was a chance to string wins together again, at the tournament where in 2023 he lost the final to Alexander Bublik 6-4 6-4.
Their head-to-head is now level at 1-1. The first meeting came in the third round of the 2024 Paris Masters 1000, where Fils won 6-3 6-4. Yesterday Struff got his revenge, in a far tighter match.
Struff's opponent in the final, Tallon Griekspoor, reached the last act in an equally gruelling fashion. The Dutchman beat Max Schoenhaus 7-6(3) 6-7(5) 7-5, the longest match of the tournament at 38 games, then Mariano Navone 7-6(4) 7-5 and Jiri Lehecka 4-6 6-4 6-3 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinal he came back against Francisco Cerundolo, winning 2-6 6-3 7-6(4): three of his four matches went to a third set.
Griekspoor is 30 and finished last season with 29 wins and 23 losses, including one title. Between 2021 and 2025, at the tournaments the site follows, he won three titles in four finals. This season he has already beaten Alexander Zverev in Montreal (6-7(3) 6-2 6-4), a sign of how uncomfortable he can be for the best players.
In the head-to-head Struff starts with a handicap: according to the site's data, Griekspoor leads 2-0. The most recent was in 2025, in the third round of the Doha 500, 7-6(5) 7-6(7); the first was in the first round of the 2021 US Open, when the Dutchman won in five sets, 2-6 7-6(3) 4-6 6-4 7-5. Both matches were decided by a handful of points.
Whoever wins, the name on the roll of honour will be a new one. In 2025 the title went to Felix Auger-Aliassime, who beat Lehecka 7-6(2) 6-7(6) 6-2 in the final; in 2024 Roberto Bautista Agut won, again against Lehecka (7-5 6-1), in 2023 Bublik beat Fils, and in 2022 Auger-Aliassime won again, against Sebastian Korda (6-3 6-4).
The final pits two different styles against each other: Struff's serve and power from the baseline against Griekspoor's movement and consistency. Struff, with one title and four finals between 2021 and 2025 as followed by the site, is looking for a second; Griekspoor, with three titles in the same period, wants to add another to his collection.
For Struff, winning would mean ending a difficult season with a result to remember and climbing the rankings; for Griekspoor, confirming his growth over recent months. We will follow the final point by point: updates and the live rankings are on the tournament and player pages.
Test yourself
3 questions on what you have just read.
1. Who beat Arthur Fils in the semifinal?
2. What was the score of Griekspoor's win over Cerundolo?
3. How many points does the Brussels title earn?