Confident Tsitsipas eyeing fifth indoor title
The Greek is into the last four of the ATP event in Rotterdam
Something happens to Stefanos Tsitsipas when he gets indoors.
Four of the Greek’s seven ATP Tour wins have come under a roof and in two of them, in Marseille in 2019 and 2020, he won the title without dropping a set, which should send out a signal to his rivals for the title in Rotterdam this week.
The world No 4 played a controlled, impressive match to beat Alex de Minaur of Australia to reach the semi-finals of the ABN/AMRO World Indoor Tournament for the second year in a row.
After dropping a set to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain in the first round, Tsitsipas has been in a mean mood, and after brushing aside Ilya Ivashka in round three, he was too good for De Minaur, even if the Aussie produced some trademark scrambling to extend a number of rallies.
“There were moments today when I was literally hitting the ball really hard, almost hitting the lines back-to-back, and he was able to get those balls back, and not only get them back but also counter-attack which was very impressive to say the least,” Tsitsipas said. “You have to be patient, you’ve got to wait and see if he can do it over and over again.”
In the semi-finals, he’ll play Czech qualifier Jiri Lehecka, who has beaten Denis Shapovalov and on Friday, Lorenzo Musetti, to reach the semi-finals in his first ATP Tour event, a run that will take him into the world’s top 100 for the first time.