The second seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas has won his second-round match, 7-6(5) 6-3, against American Sebastian Korda to progress into the third round of the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati. This was the 23-year old’s first win in the tournament.
It was a testing one hour and 39 minutes for Tsitsipas as the American did well to match up against him. The Greek world no.3 did well to save his two breakpoints and showed a good service game throughout the match. He won 89% of his first serve points and one passing shot became very important at 5/5 in the first set break. The American advanced to his forehand and put pressure on him but Tsitsipas answered with an immaculately placed angled shot which just dipped inside the single line, at the last moment.
Korda, inexperienced as he is, tried to force the issue and moved forward to throw off Tsitsipas but it led to more unforced errors which led to the Greek tennis player winning the match.
Tsitsipas, in his post-match conference, said that Korda is someone who has been good for some but he hung on. He added that in the key moments, he was consistent and thought of ways and solutions to apply pressure and he was able to bring his best when things got tough in the match.
Tsitsipas will face Lorenzo Sonego in the third round. Sonego defeated American qualifier, Tommy Paul 7-6(9) 6-2. The Greek had faced him earlier this year in Miami, where he won 6-2 7-6(2). He commented on Sonego, saying that he brings the best out of people and Tsitsipas is looking for solutions against any opponent he faces this week.
Last week, he reached the semi-finals of the Toronto Masters but lost to Reilly Opelika. He hopes that today’s win can create momentum enough for him to win Cincinnati.
