Stefanos Tsitsipas recovered from a slow start to beat Emil Ruusuvuori 7-5 6-1 to reach the second round at the ABN AMRO Open in Rotterdam.
Tsitsipas went down 3-5 in the first set, but he won 10 of the next 11 games to seal the the win in 1 hour and 11 minutes.
Ruusuvuori earned the first break in the fifth game of the first set to take a 3-2 lead. The Finnish served for the first set at 5-4, but Tsitsipas broke back to draw level to 5-5. Tsitsipas closed out the first set 7-5 with his second break in the 12th game.
Tsitsipas erarned two breaks in the fourth and sixth games to ease through to a 6-1 win in the second set.
Tsitsipas improved his record for this season to 13 wins in 14 matches. He lost his only match to Novak Djokovic in the final of the Australian Open in Melbourne. “My footwork got better over time. I think I wasn’t very very adjusted in those first few games. It took a lot of time to find the right footwork, get used to the speed of the court, acclimatize the conditions, I had an opportunity in the last game when Ruusuvuori led 5-3 to come back to come back. I revived from that. I regenerated some awesome tennis and I recaptured that first set, which was crucial. I think from that point onwards it was flawless tennis”, said Tsitsipas.
Danil Medvedev came back from one set down to beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 4-6 6-2 6-2. Medvedev went down 4-6 0-1 down but he came back by winning 9 of the final 10 games.
Medveev converted 8 of his 16 break points, while Davidovich Fokina broke from six from eleven chances. The first set was closed by four consecutive breaks. Davidovich Fokina converted his sixth set point in a marathon 10th game to seal the first set 6-4.
Medvedev broke twice in the third and fifth games and hit 14 winners to 3 unforced errors to seal the second set 6-2.
Medvedev went up a 3-0 lead with two breaks in the decisive set. Davidovich Fokina pulled one break back in the fourth game. Medvedev broke for the third time to open up a 4-1 lead. Davidovich Fokina earned his second break for 2-4, but Medvedev broke again at love before serving out for the win in the next game.
“I just managed to play a little bit better. I don’t want to say that I played much better, but a little bit better, managed to use the crucial opportunities a little bit better and I feel like he was missing a little bit more than in the first set”, said Medvedev.
