Stefanos Tsitsipas is into the quarter-finals of Roland Garros after a 3-6 7-6(4) 6-2 6-2 victory over Matteo Arnaldi.
The world number nine is into his fourth Roland Garros quarter-final after coming back from a set and a break down to beat the in-form Italian.
A last eight meeting with world number three Carlos Alcaraz awaits.
The Greek made the perfect start as he was aggressive on the backhand side to create three break points.
However Arnaldi was confident in the big moments and the Italian saved them before some incredible tactical play allowed the world number 35 to break in the fourth game for a 3-1 lead.
There was continued pressure from Tsitsipas but ultimately the former finalist was too passive on the big points.
That was quite the opposite approach from Arnaldi, who produced some big forehands to save break points in the seventh game before taking the opening set in 36 minutes.
In the second set, Tsitsipas’ frustrations grew stronger as Arnaldi’s confidence continued as he outsmarted Tsitsipas from the baseline and from the net.
The Italian broke in the fifth game for a 3-2 lead and was seemingly heading towards a two set to love lead as Tsitsipas was playing some of the worst tennis of his career.
However slowly but surely, Tsitsipas managed to find ways to force errors from Arnaldi’s game as he started to build more consistency on his return game.
That managed to be useful in the big moments as Tsitsipas saved three break points in order to force Arnaldi to serve for the match.
The Italian was tight and didn’t have the same spark to his play as the Greek took advantage, converting his second break point of the game.
That was the moment that Tsitsipas needed to return to his confident level of play as he forced a tiebreak and played some sensational tennis to level up the match at one set all.
From then on Tsitsipas never looked back as he completely neutralized Arnaldi’s game with angles and depth.
The Greek was clutch when break points down and was clinical on return as he broke on four occasions to seal a very good win.
Now Tsitsipas will need to improve his level as he plays Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-finals on Tuesday.
