Jan-Lennard Struff narrowly missed making it into the round of 16 at the lawn tournament in Halle.

The 32-year-old tennis pro from Warstein lost 6:3, 3:6, 6:7 (5:7) after a big fight against Ilja Ivashka from Belarus on Monday evening.

Struff, who only made his comeback after breaking a toe at the tournament in Stuttgart last week, had to admit defeat in the OWL Arena after 2:03 hours.

The German champion Henri Squire had previously failed.

The 21-year-old had to give up against the Serbs Laslo Djere when the score was 3: 4 due to an injury.

Both Struff and Squire were only in the main draw of the ATP event, which was endowed with 2.275 million euros, thanks to a wildcard.

Suddenly the game turns

Oscar Otte and Daniel Altmaier still have the chance to make it into the round of 16 on Tuesday.

Otte, meanwhile German number two, meets the Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic, Altmaier has to deal with the Australian Nick Kyrgios beforehand.

Olympic champion Alexander Zverev had to cancel his participation because of the serious foot injury he suffered at the French Open.

Struff initially had everything under control on Center Court.

The Davis Cup pro served well and took the first set after just 29 minutes.

Struff remained the better player in the second round, but the game suddenly tipped over in the middle of the sentence.

Iwashka got stronger, Struff eased off a bit and made a few minor mistakes.

This is how Ivashka managed to equalize the sentences.

The decision finally had to be made in the tie-break of the third set, where Struff made one mistake too many.

The Danish shooting star Holger Rune was also eliminated.

The 19-year-old lost to the Spaniard Pablo Carreño Busta 3: 6, 6: 7 (5: 7).

At the French Open in Paris, Rune caused a sensation by reaching the quarterfinals.

There he had to admit defeat to eventual finalist Casper Ruud from Norway.

Surprisingly, Andrei Rublev is no longer there.

The Russian, who was in the final last year, lost to the Georgian Nikolos Bassilashvili 6:7 (1:7), 4:6.

Meanwhile, Tamara Korpatsch was the first German tennis player to drop out of the first round of the individual competition at the lawn tournament in Berlin.

The 27-year-old player from Kaltenkirchen lost against Chinese qualifier Wang Xinyu 6:3, 3:6, 4:6 on Monday evening and missed out on the round of 16.

The world number 105.

Korpatsch had also fought his way through qualifying into the main draw.

In the round of 16, Wang meets the French Open finalist Coco Gauff or her American countrywoman Ann Li.

This means that only Andrea Petkovic and Jule Niemeier are still in the tournament.

In the doubles competition, both lost in the round of 16 against Asia Muhammad from the USA and Ena Shibahara from Japan with 3:6, 6:3, 8:10.

In singles, both face difficult tasks in their first round matches: Petkovic (34) meets the former Wimbledon champion Garbiñe Muguruza from Spain, Niemeier (22) has to deal with the Swiss Olympic champion Belinda Bencic.

The three-time Grand Slam tournament winner Angelique Kerber did not start in Berlin in preparation for the grass classic in Wimbledon.

As the first seeded players, Karolina Pliskova from the Czech Republic and Darja Kassatkina from Russia solved their opening tasks after initial difficulties.

Pliskova prevailed against the Estonian Kaia Kanepi 6: 7 (5: 7), 6: 0, 6: 0, Kassatkina defeated Anhelina Kalinina from Ukraine 5: 7, 6: 3, 6: 1.