Tsitsipas Cruises Past Ymer In Marseille

Stefanos Tsitsipas extended his Open 13 Provence winning streak on Wednesday, beating Mikael Ymer 6-1, 6-3 in Marseille.

The reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion claimed his fifth straight win at the ATP 250 event after 71 minutes, winning 88 per cent of first-serve points (21/24) en route to victory. Tsitsipas is aiming to win back-to-back titles at a tour-level event for the first time. Last year, the World No. 6 won each of the eight sets he contested in Marseille to capture his second ATP Tour crown.

Tsitsipas is through to his first quarter-final of the year. After representing Team Greece at the inaugural ATP Cup, the 21-year-old reached the Australian Open third round and advanced to the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament second round.

Tsitsipas will face in-form Canadian Vasek Pospisil for a semi-final spot in Marseille. The Open Sud de France runner-up defeated eighth seed Hubert Hurkacz 6-3, 6-4 in 88 minutes.

Alexander Bublik rallied from a set down to defeat home favourite Benoit Paire 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. The Kazakh dropped just three points behind his first serve across the final two sets (34/37) to eliminate the 2016 semi-finalist after one hour and 37 minutes.

Bublik will face the winner of Thursday’s second-round meeting between fourth seed Denis Shapovalov and former World No. 3 Marin Cilic. Shapovalov and Cilic are tied at 1-1 in their ATP Head2Head series.