Fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas was in superb form as he charged past Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 7-6(3), 7-5 on Tuesday night to book a place in the Roland Garros semi-final.
The FedEx ATP Race To Turin leader overcame the surging Medvedev, who was into this stage in Paris for the first time, to earn his first victory over the Russian since 2019 and improve to 2-6 in their ATP Head2Head.
Both players came in with perfect 3-0 records in Grand Slam quarter-final matches. But after two hours and 21 minutes on Court Philippe-Chatrier it was Tsitsipas who went on to reach the semi-finals in Paris for the second year in a row.
You May Also Like:
Zverev Races Into First Roland Garros Semi-final
Tsitsipas will next face sixth seed Alexander Zverev as he seeks to reach the championship match at a major for the first time. Tsitsipas leads Zverev 5-2 in their ATP Head2Head (1-0 on clay courts).
The second seed’s defeat also ended his bid to unseat Novak Djokovic at World No. 1. Medvedev would have risen to the top of the FedEx ATP Rankings by reaching the final if Djokovic did not, or by winning his maiden Grand Slam title in Paris.
Tsitsipas was clinical in the opening set, bossing the rallies and exposing Medvedev’s lacklustre movement on clay courts. The Greek only lost four points on his serve – no more than one point per game – and won 85 per cent (17/20) of points behind his strong first delivery.
Follow Live Scores At RolandGarros.com
That left Medvedev under pressure as Tsitsipas regularly pulled him into the court with smart approaches: Tsitsipas won 9/10 points at the net to Medvedev’s 1/3. Tsitsipas broke early for a 3-1 lead and never looked back as he took the opening set in just 30 minutes.
Medvedev finally found his footing in the second, and employed a bit more variety – everything from the serve-and-volley combo, to a successful tweener lob – to keep Tsitsipas on his toes. The Russian recovered after going down another break at 2-1, and responded by raising his level and taking control of the rallies with his groundstrokes.
Can’t hit the tweener lob any better ?#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/QYg5HN1HeZ
— ATP Tour (@atptour) June 8, 2021
Increasingly coming to the net – where he won 100 per cent (9/9) of points – and looking more comfortable moving around the court, Medvedev got them back on serve at 3-3 and stayed toe-to-toe with Tsitsipas. He found some big first serves when Tsitsipas worked his way to two set points at 5-4, and took them into a tie-break. But the fifth seed was clinical in the deciding tilt to take a two-set lead.
The pair were locked into a tense battle as Medvedev looked to make a fast start after dropping the second set. He created five break opportunities on the Tsitsipas serve, and finally converted to take a 4-2 lead. But Tsitsipas never let Medvedev race ahead, and responded by winning eight of the next nine points to break straight back and take back control for 5-4.
Down match point at 6-5, Medvedev inexplicably served and volleyed behind an underarm serve that popped up into Tsitsipas’ strike zone, and the Greek player gleefully spanked a down-the-line topspin backhand winner to seal the match.
Did You Know?
At 22 years 305 days, Tsitsipas is bidding to become the youngest Grand Slam men’s singles champion since Juan Martin del Potro won the 2009 US Open aged 20 years 355 days. (Ages calculated at the end of the tournament.)