Stefanos Tsitsipas faced challenges on Wednesday at Roland Garros but managed to advance to the third round of the French Open for the sixth time. Under the canopy of Court Suzanne Lenglen, the Greek star defeated a tenacious Daniel Altmaier 6-3, 6-2, 6-7(2), 6-4 in a match that lasted two hours and 45 minutes.
Tsitsipas played beautifully for the first hour, hitting 27 winners in the first two sets to take a comfortable lead. However, the German player refused to give up, reaching his peak performance in the third-set tie-break to gain a foothold in the match.
Altmaier, who stunned Jannik Sinner in the second round in Paris last year, was poised for another upset when he broke Tsitsipas’ serve for the first time in the fourth set. With a fifth set looming, Tsitsipas played more aggressively, breaking back for 4-4 before storming to win in the pair’s maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head match.
“I don’t get to play against single backhand guys too often, so it is like I am getting a taste of my own tennis. It is very identical and a type of ID a single backhand player brings to the court. It can be very effective on the court, opening up the court, and creating much more topspin. It brings a different challenge playing single backhand guys. I don’t usually play against them,” Tsitsipas said as quoted by ATP.
“My brain operates in a different rotation, to come up with some good shots because they have the advantage of opening up the court more and hitting with extra topspin. This is something I had to deal with and find solutions. Today was great. I was down on the score and then I came back and I thought my tennis was really nice,” he added.
Tsitsipas has a 23-7 record at the clay-court event, having reached the final in 2021. He plans to maintain his winning streak at this year’s event against Lorenzo Sonego or Zhang Zhizhen.
“Having the crowd by my side this morning has been incredible. It felt amazing. To get to play such marvelous tennis. I really enjoyed it,” Tsitsipas said.
Tsitsipas, who defeated Marton Fucsovics in straight sets in his first round, has performed well on clay this season. The No. 9 player in the ATP Rankings won his third ATP Masters 1000 title in Monte-Carlo before moving on to the title match in Rome.
