Sad farewell for Ferrer
But that quickly disappeared as he was overpowered 6-2 6-1.
Playing in front of a packed centre court crowd eager to see another upset, Statham got off to a confident start, forcing three point breaks in Struff’s opening two service games. But he was unable to capitalise on those early opportunities, which proved costly.
Struff broke Statham in the fourth game before racing to a 4-1 advantage.
While Statham dug himself out of a deeper hole in the first set against Chung, down 5-1, there was no comeback this time as Struff comfortably closed it out.
On the back his his big serve, Struff, the world No 58, then cruised through the second set.
He broke Statham in his first service game on the way to a 3-0 lead.
The 1.96m-tall German finished the match with 12 aces and wrapped up victory in little over an hour.
Earlier yesterday, the tournament lost its first and third seeds as John Isner and Marco Cecchinato were sent packing.
On centre court, Isner, the No 10 in the world, lost 7-6 7-6 to American compatriot Taylor Fritz, who is ranked at 50.
On the grandstand court, Cecchinato, from Italy, went down 6-3 6-3 to Tennys Sandgren, from America. Despite being ranked 18 in the world, Cecchinato is a clay court specialist and wasn’t expected to go deep in Auckland.
The loss of Isner is a surprise though, as he had his best year as David Ferrer’s final appearance at the Classic has come to a heartbreaking end after the fourtime champion was forced to retire due to injury.
With the match on serve at 1-1 in the first set, Ferrer suffered a suspected calf injury early in the third game of his second round clash against fellow Spaniard and fourth seed Pablo Carreno Busta.
The 36-year-old veteran hobbled around in pain as he
a professional in 2018.
Fritz broke the giant American’s big serve in the fifth game of the opening set only for Isner to break back in the next game, much to Fritz’s annoyance.
‘‘I played a bad game, I started thinking too much about how I was up a break, how I should win the set now.
‘‘I panicked a bit, thinking I need to win the set now because I’m up a break. It wasn’t good at all from me and made me really need to win that first set.’’
Surprise, surprise the set went to a tiebreak. Fritz had his nose in front throughout and won it 7-3.
The second set also went to a unsuccessfully tried to walk it off. After taking a medical timeout, he bravely returned to the court with his right leg heavily strapped.
However, he lasted he just three more points before calling time on his incredible career in Auckland.
The Classic is one of just six tournaments Ferrer is playing before retiring at the end of the year and he was hoping to win a record fifth title.
tiebreak, without any breaks and once again Fritz came out on top 7-5, with Isner going too long down the middle of the court with a backhand on match point.
In other action, second seed Fabio Fognini lost his cool but won his second-round match.
The world No 13, from Italy, was docked a point in his match against German Peter Gojowczyk for throwing his racket into the ground for the second time.
It was a thrilling contest, which Fognini won 6-2 3-6 7-6.
In the doubles, Kiwi Marcus Daniell and Wesley Koolhof had a 6-4 7-6 win over Philipp Oswald and Tim Puetz.