ATP Marseille: Safiullin shocks Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals
That wasn't really to be expected: The current 163 in the ATP ranking, Roman Safiullin , takes Stefanos Tsitsipas from the 250 tournament in Marseille - and plays well.
by Dennis Heineman
last edit: Feb 18, 2022, 09:48 pm
A qualifier beating the top seed – that always causes a stir. 24-year-old Roman Safiullin is in the quarter-finals of Marseille after beating Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4. With difficulty he had reached the round of the last eight in the last few days. There were two three-set wins against Alexei Popyrin and Tomas Machak. However, he didn't look tired or nervous against Tsitsipas - on the contrary.
Tsitsipas, it must be said, didn't have his best day, but Safiullin kept posing problems for him. With a break in the middle of the first set, the Russian set the course - he converted his first set ball with a backhand winner.
Endless break points for Safiullin in set 2
At the start of the second set, Tsitsipas faced a total of ten break points in his first two service games. He was able to hold the first service game, and Safiullin struck in the second. He could fully rely on his own serve. He only gave the Greek one break opportunity - and he fended it off. The 6:4 in the second set was the logical consequence. Safiullin will meet either Felix Auger-Aliassime or Ilya Ivashka in the semifinals.