“It was a great start,” Stefanos Tsitsipas easily storms past Lucas Pouille to start his Madrid Open campaign
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Stefanos Tsitsipas
Stefanos Tsitsipas made a confident start to his Mutua Madrid Open campaign on Wednesday evening, demonstrating why he is one of the men to beat on European clay. With a 6-3, 6-4 victory over French wild card Lucas Pouille, the Greek climbed to 8-1 on the clay this season. With the victory, he became the first man in ATP Tour history to win 25 matches in a single year.
In an interesting middle period of the first set, the fourth seed faced only one breakpoint, when he dropped service in between a pair of breaks. In set two, he made no mistake, following an early break with a love hold to take a commanding lead.
“I’m just going to try to play consistently”- Stefanos Tsitsipas
Tsitsipas dominated on serve, with the exception of the game in which Lucas Pouille broke at love. He won 94 percent of his first deliveries (31/33) and had seven aces, the last of which came on match point. At Manolo Santana Stadium, Tsitsipas also dominated the Balance of Power duel, shooting 30 percent of his shots in attack compared to 22 percent for his opponent.
After a straight-set win over Karen Khachanov, Pouille, who broke into the Top 10 in 2018, came into the match in high form. In the one-hour, eight-minute competition, Tsitsipas, on the other hand, proved to be on a different level. The World No. 174 Frenchman was attempting to match his best ATP Ranking win of his career against the World No. 5.
“It was good magic, a fair amount of magic dust,” Stefanos Tsitsipas said of his victory at the Caja Magica. “A great start at the beginning of this tournament.” Speaking about that impeccable clay-court record, Tsitsipas explained that he prefers to keep his focus on the present: “I don’t really think about this stuff, to be honest with you,” he said.
“I’ve had good runs in the past. I’ve played well on this surface but every single day is a different challenge. Everyone wants to go out there and play the best they can against me, so I’m just going to try to play consistently as much as I can,” he added.
Stefanos Tsitsipas will next face Grigor Dimitrov
Tsitsipas will face Grigor Dimitrov in the last 16 after going 31-6 on clay since the start of 2021 with three victories in five finals. Earlier on Wednesday, the Bulgarian defeated Diego Schwartzman 6-0, 6-3.
Also Read: “More than the clay” Stefanos Tsitsipas names the biggest obstacle at the Madrid Open
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Pritha Ghosh
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