Stefanos Tsitsipas powered through to his second Grand Slam championship semi-final on Wednesday at Roland Garros.
Fifth seed Tsitsipas avenged his recent Hamburg European Open final loss to No 13 seed Andrey Rublev of Russia with a 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 victory over one hour and 55 minutes on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
Tsitsipas, who improves to a 27-9 match record on the season, won five straight games from 3-5 down in the first set en route to recording his second win over Rublev in their fourth ATP Head2Head meeting.
The 22-year-old Greek will next challenge World No. 1 and 2016 champion Novak Djokovic or Serbia or Spanish No. 17 seed Pablo Carreno Busta in the semi-finals on Friday. Tsitsipas, who lost to Rafael Nadal in the 2019 Australian Open semi-finals, has a 2-3 record against Djokovic and is 2-0 against Carreno Busta.
Rublev broke clear in the fifth game with a forehand drop volley winner and held his advantage to 5-3, when he came within three points of the set. However, Tsitsipas grew in confidence to break back and was handed the 48-minute first set when Rublev over-hit a forehand long. It was the first time that Tsitsipas had won a first set against Rublev, who won their first tour-level meeting at the 2019 US Open, 6-4, 6-7(5), 7-6(7), 7-5.
Tsitsipas, who won five straight games from 3-5 in the first set to 1-0 in the second set, fortuitously broke for a 4-2 advantage in the second set, when a backhand rose sharply off the top of the net at 15/40 to catch Rublev off guard. Tsitsipas continued to draw Rublev to the net and the Russian buckled under the pressure at 2-5, losing his serve for a fourth time when he hit a backhand long.
There was no way back for Rublev, who was broken in the fourth game of the third set. Rublev saved one match point at 2-5, 30/40 with an unreturned serve, but Tsitsipas wasn't to be denied for long. The Greek soon completed victory with his 35th winner of the match, a forehand volley.
Rublev, who also won the Qatar ExxonMobil Open (d. Moutet) and the Adelaide International (d. Harris) in January, is now 29-7 on the season — second only to Djokovic, who currently has a 35-1 record.
from Tennis - ATP World Tour https://ift.tt/2GHDNGb
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