In-Form Tsitsipas Beats Anderson In Estoril

#NextGenATP Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas continued his run of form on Thursday at the Millennium Estoril Open. The 19-year-old knocked out top-seeded South African Kevin Anderson 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-3 in two hours and 13 minutes for a place in the quarter-finals.

World No. 8 Anderson, who reached the semi-finals last year (l. to Muller), could not convert his first set point chance on Tsitsipas’ serve at 5-4, Ad-Out in the first set, which lasted one hour. World No. 44 Tsitsipas broke Anderson’s serve in the sixth game of the second set, then in the fifth game of the deciding set.

Tsitsipas, who beat No. 7-ranked Dominic Thiem last week en route to his first ATP World Tour final at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell (l. to Nadal), is now 3-5 lifetime against opponents in the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings.

He will next play Spain’s Roberto Carballes Baena, who required more than three hours and and saved three match points to beat Cameron Norrie of Great Britain 5-7, 6-2, 7-6(1). Carballes Baena saved the match points on serve at 4-5, 0/40 in the deciding set, prior to winning the first six points of the tie-break.

The highest-ranked player remaining in Estoril, World No. 11 Pablo Carreno Busta, moved on with a 6-1, 7-5 win against Argentine Nicolas Kicker in one hour, 28 minutes. The Spaniard overcame a 3-5 deficit in the second set, claiming the final four games, and with it, a spot in the quarter-finals, where he will play Chilean Nicolas Jarry or compatriot Ricardo Ojeda Lara. 

Carreno Busta seeks his third consecutive semi-final after reaching the final four at Miami (l. to A. Zverev) and Barcelona (l. to Tsitsipas).

Did You Know?
Last week in Barcelona, Stefanos Tsitsipas became the first Greek man to reach an ATP World Tour title match since Nicholas Kalogeropoulos in Des Moines, Iowa in 1973.