Hamburg European Open: Stefanos Tsitsipas after defeating Koepfer in the quarterfinals
The top seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas has made it to the quarter-finals at the Hamburg European Open.
by Florian Goosmann from Hamburg
last edit: Jul 14, 2021, 07:29 pm
Tsitsipas beat Dominik Koepfer 7: 6 (2) and 6: 3, but had to fight hard for his opening win.
Koepfer held up well from the start, repeatedly thundering forehand winners into the field of the Greek, who opposed it with a lot of variance. And also sprinkled one or the other stop. At 6: 5, from his point of view, Tsitsipas already had a set ball, but Koepfer fended off with a courageous serve-and-volley action and saved himself in the tiebreak. There the number 4 in the world quickly moved away 3-0 and finally took the set.
The second round also remained level until the 3: 3, then Tsitsipas broke - and at the end a second time, even if Koepfer turned a 0:40. "Moin Hamburg" were Tsitsipas' first words after the match, "It's wonderful to be back." Tsitsipas had reached the final at Rothenbaum in 2020, where he was inferior to Andrey Rublev.
Tsitsipas already with 40th win in 2021
"Dominik let me fight hard, never gave up, pushed me to my limit", he paid Koepfer great respect afterwards.
Tsitsipas showed several times over the course of the game how much he wanted this victory - his 40th match win this year. Which is what he has to show for most of them. Tsitsipas is also top on clay with 23 wins in 2021.
After his final in Roland Garros and the awarded 2-0 set lead against Novak Djokovic, Tsitsipas went underground for the time being, then lost at Wimbledon quite uninspired at the start. In Hamburg he apparently wants to attack again. And if possible: get tournament victory number 3 this season.
In the quarter-finals on Friday, he will now face Kohlschreiber-conqueror Filip Krajinovic.
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