French Open: After a 2-0 deficit – Stefanos Tsitsipas turns the game against Lorenzo Musetti
Stefanos Tsitsipas has reached the second round of the French Open after a big fight. In his first round duel with Lorenzo Musetti , last year's finalist had to catch up from a 0:2 set deficit ( Here you can read the match in re-live! )
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: May 25, 2022, 12:34 am
Holger Rune, Stan Wawrinka, Fabio Fognini - and also Lorenzo Musetti. At the French Open 2022, some unseeded players were waiting as extremely unpleasant first-round opponents. And Stefanos Tsitsipas? At the start in Roland Garros, he had to deal with the same Lorenzo Musetti who was able to push none other than Novak Djokovic to the brink of defeat last year.
The 20-year-old also showed his skills early on against Stefanos Tsitsipas: The backhand worked well for the Italian, especially with the stop Musetti should increasingly annoy his opponent over the course of the game. But first things first: Tsitsipas had to stretch in the first few games, but reached an extremely high level early on - and consequently took the lead after a few games with a break.
Musetti with seven games in a row
Lorenzo Musetti was not impressed. The Italian stayed true to his match plan, benefited from numerous mistakes made by Tsitsipas on the forehand side and was able to equalize a little later. It was to get even worse for the Greek a little later: Musetti was now gaining the upper hand, managed another break and closed the first set 7:5 after a little over an hour.
The beginning of a pitch-black period for the number four of the tournament: Tsitsipas had to accept a break right at the start of the second round, Musetti put another one behind to make it 3-0 and quickly pulled away to 4-0. There were seven games that the 20-year-old was able to win en suite - Tsistipas looked at times as if he were completely lost. The fourth in the world rankings started well and even had the chance to equalize both breaks. But Musetti's nerves withstood the pressure - the Italian served out the second set in a hard-fought service game to make it 6-4.
Tsitsipas with the turnaround
However, this trend from set two continued in set three. Now Stefanos Tsitsipas had regained some control of the game, the Greek made the break right at the start of the third round. The beginning of a safe sentence for Stefano Tsitsipas. With 6: 2, the 23-year-old should finally grab it. At this point at the latest, some unpleasant memories of the match against Novak Djokovic at Lorenzo Musetti should have come up again.
These should have become more concrete when Stefanos Tsitsipas also increased the pace at the start of the third set and made the break again early after an avoidable forehand error by the Italian. The young Italian was able to equalize this immediately and even had the chance to equalize from 0: 3 to 3: 3 - but Tsitsipas stayed wide awake in this phase and immediately got the new break advantage. The fourth in the world rankings could not be taken away: Set four went to Tsitsipas 6: 2.
History repeats itself for Musetti
Lorenzo Musetti was now struggling physically, again the Italian had to accept a break right at the start of the set. A little later, the situation became even bleaker for the 20-year-old: First, Musetti was able to thwart another chance for the double break, but then the Italian put a feasible overhead volley into the net. The decision in this match, after almost three and a half hours, Stefanos Tsitsipas made the comeback success perfect.
History is repeating itself for 20-year-old Musetti, as in the previous year, despite a 2-0 lead in sets, the youngster has to admit defeat to a top five man. Stefanos Tsitsipas, on the other hand, who is the first contender for the final in his half of the draw, was just able to prevent a rude awakening at the French Open. The Greek meets qualifier Zdenek Kolar in round two, who defeated Lucas Pouille in four sets.
You can read the match in re-live here!
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