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Stefanos Tsitsipas will look to increase an unbeaten run towards Karen Khachanov on his twenty third birthday on Thursday after holding his nerve to succeed in the third spherical on the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers in Toronto. Since he reached his maiden ATP Masters 1000 ultimate towards Rafael Nadal in Canada in 2018, the Greek has made giants strides.
On Monday, he surpassed the Spaniard as the brand new No. 3 within the FedEx ATP Rankings. On Thursday, he’ll look to enhance on a formidable file in Canada to 7-2 ought to he lengthen his ATP Head2Head ledger towards Khachanov to 4-0 on Thursday.
Tsitsipas recovered after letting 5 match factors slip in an epic 22-minute, 28-point tie-break towards Ugo Humbert, earlier than he ultimately prevailed 6-3, 6-7(13), 6-1 in his opening match. He had fallen to the Frenchman in each prior ATP Head2Head encounters, together with ultimately month’s Tokyo Olympics.
“I did not wish to give it some thought. No matter occurred occurred, and I do not need something to have an effect on me. I do not need something to get inside my head,” Tsitsipas stated of lacking 5 match level alternatives within the second set. “I simply confirmed unimaginable psychological steadiness and psychological energy to beat this tough tie-break that I simply skilled… I nonetheless had excessive hopes that I might pull one thing good off.”
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Tsitsipas remained on observe for his third title of the season, following his first ATP Masters 1000 crown on the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters and victory in Lyon. His third-round opponent, Khachanov, left the Japanese capital with a silver medal.
The Russian got here up simply brief towards Tsitsipas 7-5 within the deciding set within the Rotterdam quarter-finals within the pair’s most up-to-date showdown in March. The 25-year-old has already scored spectacular victories over in-form Briton Cameron Norrie and 15th-seeded compatriot Aslan Karatsev to succeed in the third spherical.
High seed Daniil Medvedev continues his marketing campaign on Thursday when he meets World No. 85 James Duckworth for a spot within the quarter-finals. The Russian, a runner-up to Nadal in Montreal two years in the past, survived a difficult second spherical towards one-time doubles companion Alexander Bublik in three units.
“I don’t know if the circumstances modified with the humidity, however I used to be not enjoying effectively earlier than the rain… I knew I needed to play higher if I used to be to win,” Medvedev stated. “When again on the court docket, from the primary sport I felt significantly better. I solely felt higher and higher in the course of the match, he didn’t have one break level [after the rain]. I turned across the match fully.”
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The 29-year-old Duckworth sprung a straight-sets upset of 16th seed and Sunday’s Citi Open champion Jannik Sinner for his finest end in Canada. The Australian’s earlier finest outcomes on the occasion have been three straight second-round qualifying defeats, the final of which got here 5 years in the past.
“He’s very stable off either side. He’s obtained no actual holes in his sport. He hits with nice size. That’s one in every of his finest attributes – he’s capable of put the ball so deep that it’s actually exhausting to assault him,” Duckworth stated of Medvedev. “It’s going to be powerful, however I’ll go on the market, give it a superb crack and see what occurs.”
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