ATP Shanghai: Stefanos Tsitsipas beats Novak Djokovic
Stefanos Tsitsipas was the second player to reach the semi-finals at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Shanghai. The Greek defeated defending champion Novak Djokovic 3: 6, 7: 5 and 6: 3 and meets Daniil Medvedev on Saturday.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Oct 11, 2019, 10:47 am
A tender seven minutes were played when Novak Djokovic led 3-0 in the second quarter-finals of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament. Opponent Stefanos Tsitsipas found the game better afterwards, but the Greek could not become really dangerous to the industry leader in the first set. The 6: 3 for Djokovic after 32 minutes was only logical. Especially since the Serb didn't lose a sentence in Shanghai this year or last year.
Stefanos Tsitsipas, on the other hand, was on the court with the good feeling of having written Greek sports history: The 21-year-old will be the first player in his country to take part in the ATP Finals, which was made possible by Fabio Fognini's defeat against Daniil Medvedev in the first quarter-finals , Tsitsipas got off to a strong start in 2019 with the semi-finals at the Australian Open, followed by the titles in Estoril and Marseille.
Tsitsipas makes the comeback
In the second set in Shanghai, Tsitsipas initially served with the serve, but could not use a 15:40 break in the sixth game. Mainly because Djokovic picked up the pace again in this phase, including the service. Nevertheless, the 21-year-old from Athens did not get discouraged, struggled in a tiebreak in the third encounter with the world number one - and after a double mistake Djokovic used his first set ball to 7: 5.
In the decision, Tsitsipas was again allowed to submit - and the outsider remained offensive. Djokovic, on the other hand, made unusual mistakes and gave up his serve to 1: 3. And after a little over two hours of play, the Greek served up a sensation. How strong the Greek ultimately acted is shown by the statistics at the beginning of the second sentence: From then on, Stefanos Tsitsipas didn't allow a single breakball.