Tsitsipas Beats Norrie For Lyon Crown
Second seed Stefanos Tsitsipas produced an impressive performance on Sunday to defeat Cameron Norrie 6-3, 6-3 in the final of the Open Parc Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Lyon and win his second ATP Tour title of the year.
The 22-year-old, who won his first ATP Masters 1000 event at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters in April, has now claimed a Tour-leading 33 wins this year, four ahead of Andrey Rublev (29). Tsitsipas has now won seven ATP Tour titles in his career with his victory over Norrie. He extended his lead in the FedEx ATP Race To Turin while also cementing his position as one of the favourites for Roland Garros.
“I felt in good shape from the beginning of the tournament. I am proud of today’s match, I knew it would be a difficult one against Cameron who has been showing great tennis this week,” Tsitsipas said on court. “He has been winning against good players and showing what the left hand can do on clay. It was not an easy match today, I had to handle the nerves and I am proud of my performance and the way I stayed focussed towards my goal.”
With the 250 FedEx ATP Ranking points Tsitsipas earned this week, he increased his first-place lead in the Race to 440 points. The Greek now has 3,360 points, extending his advantage over second-placed Novak Djokovic (2,920).
In a lively start, both players fended off break points in their opening service games as Tsitsipas looked to move up the court and dictate the play with his heavy forehand while Norrie aimed to hug the baseline and target the Greek’s backhand. In a high-quality first set, Tsitsipas made the breakthrough in the eighth game to move 5-3 ahead with Norrie missing an overhead long. Having made 69 per cent of his first serves in the opening set, Tsitsipas was able to close it out with one of the seven aces he hit in the match.
Tsitsipas continued to apply pressure on Norrie at the start of the second set, moving well and hitting with great depth. Although Norrie managed to temporarily fend off the danger and hold onto his serve, Tsitsipas started to force errors out of the World No. 49 and broke to lead 4-3. The Greek broke Norrie’s serve a final time to seal the win after an hour and nine minutes with his focus now turning to Roland Garros.
“It is about getting there as early possible, starting to practise and getting in shape for the big Parisian Grand Slam, which I adore and love and hopefully something good can come from it,” Tsitsipas said.
The Greek has now won all five of his ATP 250 finals in which he has played in and is yet to drop a set (10-0) in those matches.
This was Norrie’s third ATP Tour final after falling just short in a final-set tie-break earlier this month in the Estoril championship match against Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Straight-sets victories over Dominic Thiem and Karen Khachanov earlier this week in Lyon moved him to 23 tour-level victories on 2021. He earned 150 FedEx ATP Ranking points for his efforts.