Saturday night at the Madrid Open featured an almighty clash between two familiar faces in the world of men’s tennis.
Stefanos Tsitsipas survived a huge scare by coming back from a set down to oust Dominic Thiem 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (5), in what was a thrilling encounter. The Greek fourth seed found himself trailing throughout the clash where he also had to recover from a 1-3 deficit in the decider and twice he had to serve to stay in the match. Thiem produced some of his best tennis in what was an encouraging sign from the Austrian who is aiming to return to the top of the sport following his wrist injury.
Just moments after their match concluded, Tsitsipas paid tribute to his opponent when they greeted each other at the net. He currently trails their head-to-head 4-5.
“Your best yet, you still have it,” Tsitsipas said to Thiem about his performance. “Keep going. You’ve got this.”
Battling on the court for more than two hours, Tsitsipas managed to land 39 consecutive first serves in. Overall he hit 35 winners which was seven more than Thiem and made just six unforced errors.
“I’m in a way happy that we were able to show that kind of tennis… Today sort of showed what kind of intensity two guys that play single-hand backhands can bring to tennis,” Tsitsipas said.
“I’m happy I got away with a win. Things weren’t easy at the very end but I just kept fighting… The third set it was just pure fight. He’s not someone that’s going to give up and he hates even giving the slightest to you in terms of free points.”
The 24-year-old is aiming to win his first title of the year in Madrid. He reached the final of the tournament in 2019 and was a semi-finalist last year. Tsitsipas was runner-up to Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open in January and last week was denied the title in Barcelona by Carlos Alcaraz.
Tsitsipas will next play Sebastian Baez, who beat American Marcos Giron 3-6 6-3 6-4.
