Will ‘Struffi’ upset the favorite on clay again?
Finally, the only Grand Slam tournament of the year on clay is back! The 2026 French Open is kicking off, and we’re sharing our prediction online for the match between Alexander Bublik and Jan-Lennard Struff.
The Warstein native is determined to do better this year than he did last season. Back then, the 36-year-old was knocked out in the very first round. But with Bublik, he faces a tough challenge right off the bat.
The Russian is ranked about 70 spots ahead of him in the world rankings and reached the semifinals at the clay-court tournament in Geneva just last week. Previously, however, his form left room for improvement, which is why we don’t consider the German—who was eliminated in the first round of the French Open last year and has reached the round of 16 in 2021 as his best result so far—to be completely without a chance.
Against this backdrop, our Alexander Bublik vs. Jan-Lennard Struff prediction calls for at least four sets. Furthermore, we anticipate at least one set will be decided by a tiebreak.
In addition, we believe the betting odds for a 3-1 victory by the Russian in the match on the Seine between Alexander Bublik and Jan-Lennard Struff could be worth considering. Even though he hasn’t been particularly convincing on this surface this season, we still see him as the favorite, which is why Struff might win one set, but probably no more than that.
Alexander Bublik – Jan-Lennard Struff Head-to-Head Record
The two pros have faced each other twice on clay so far, and the German’s record is flawless with two wins! Struff has already defeated the pro from Gatchina once in the second round of the French Open in 2024, and he did so without dropping a set.
Nevertheless, the bookmakers’ odds for the match between Alexander Bublik and Jan-Lennard Struff clearly favor the Russian pro, who is coached by Artem Suprunov.
Alexander Bublik – Jan-Lennard Struff Prediction
Alexander Bublik has been on the ATP Tour for twelve years and has won nine tournaments to date. However, he has only two victories on clay—in Gstaad and Kitzbühel—and his results on this surface this season, with the exception of the last tournament in Geneva where he reached the semifinals, have been less than impressive.
It therefore seems rather unlikely that “Sasha” will be able to repeat his performance from last year, when he reached the quarterfinals for the first time. For the German, who has one ATP tournament victory on clay to his name—a win in Munich in April 2024—this situation at least presents a small chance.
Especially since he has always played very well against the Russian in his two previous clay-court matches, even winning both without dropping a set! Given this situation, for the match between Alexander Bublik and Jan-Lennard Struff, we’re betting not on a straight-sets victory for the Russian, but on the match going to more than 3.5 sets.
