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A couple of centimetres practically modified the trajectory of Stefanos Tsitsipas’ Western & Southern Open quarter-final in opposition to Felix Auger-Aliassime. However the Greek maintained his focus to earn a spot within the final 4 in Cincinnati.
Regardless of letting slip two match factors within the second set, Tsitsipas defeated Auger-Aliassime 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 after two hours and 12 minutes to succeed in the semi-finals at this event for the second consecutive yr. However the second seed’s victory didn’t come drama-free.
“Tennis is a psychological sport and issues like this occur. It’s vital to simply stick with your roots and what you might be doing finest,” Tsitsipas mentioned in his on-court interview. “It won’t have been ultimate within the second set, particularly once I made so many alternatives and had such an excellent alternative to shut it a bit earlier. However with a number of persistence and simply looking for that chance within the third set, I used to be stepping in, I used to be actually decided and I didn’t let go.”
For a lot of the first two units, the Greek was in full management. Tsitsipas performed with affected person aggression to take a 6-2, 5-4 15/40 lead as a bodily impeded Auger-Aliassime struggled to seek out rhythm. However on the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals champion’s second match level on the Canadian’s serve, Felix hit a backhand that hardly clipped the again of the baseline.
The ball was so shut that Tsitsipas thought it was out and he had gained the match. However as an alternative, that served as a turning level as Auger-Aliassime — who took an damage timeout at 2-3 within the set to get remedy on his left aspect — discovered higher stability in his sport to rapidly flip the desk and ship the battle to a 3rd set.
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However after taking a toilet break, Tsitsipas returned to courtroom refreshed. The match factors he misplaced didn’t trigger any panic. Auger-Aliassime gifted his opponent an early break within the third with a sprayed forehand vast, and the Greek by no means seemed again, storming by the decider with out going through a break level.
“[I was] decided, fierce and feisty once I needed to be. I’m simply full of many feelings proper now,” Tsitsipas mentioned. “Issues bought actually powerful sooner or later and I needed to discover completely different options and give you some new concepts and I adopted by. [I] made it a alternative of mine to step in with aggression and construct up the sport.”
Any hopes of a late comeback by the Canadian have been dashed when Auger-Aliassime struck his seventh double fault to offer the second seed a second break. However the 21-year-old will go away Cincinnati assured after advancing to his second ATP Masters 1000 remaining, together with a win over shut buddy Matteo Berrettini, the Wimbledon finalist.
Auger-Aliassime dominated his rivalry with Tsitsipas from the juniors by their early years as professionals. However Tsitsipas has firmly taken management of their ATP Head2Head collection, now main 5-2 thanks to 5 consecutive wins.
The second seed suffered a tricky three-set misplaced final week within the Toronto semi-finals in opposition to Reilly Opelka. However he has rebounded effectively in Ohio with three victories to advance to the final 4. Tsitsipas is attempting to win his second Masters 1000 title after triumphing in Monte-Carlo earlier this season.
Subsequent up will likely be Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Alexander Zverev, who eradicated Turin contender Casper Ruud of Norway in straight units. Tsitsipas leads the German 6-2 of their ATP Head2Head rivalry.
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