After a testing five consecutive days on court, Stefanos Tsitsipas claimed a fourth-round spot — and a hard-earned day off — with a straight-sets victory against Laslo Djere on Saturday at Wimbledon.
The fifth-seeded Greek prevailed 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-4 on No. 2 Court at the All England Club to reach the last 16 for the second time at the grass-court major. Tsitsipas held his nerve at the tail end of tight first and second sets before a confident third-set display booked a fourth-round clash against Christopher Eubanks in London.
Due to persistent rain in London, Tsitsipas’ five-set opening win against Dominic Thiem took place across Tuesday and Wednesday in the U.K. capital, while his second-round victory against two-time champion Andy Murray, which also went the distance, was spread across Thursday and Friday. After converting three of his four break points against Djere, the 24-year-old became the first Greek player to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon on multiple occasions.
“It’s the first time this week that I’ve made it easy for [myself],” said Tsitsipas in his on-court interview. “I’ve had a [couple of] thrillers the past few days. It took Noah 14 days to build the ark and it feels like the past two matches are equivalent to something like that.
“I’ve never played a match that lasted two days, with rain delaying everything for so long. It’s been four days [to complete two matches]. It’s never easy, and it makes my life so much easier when I come back here, feeling the love of the crowd.”
Djere had competed well in the opening set of his fourth Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with Tsitsipas, but the Serbian was left to rue a pair of double faults in the 10th game as the Greek claimed a decisive break to move ahead. Tsitsipas then fought hard to stick with his opponent in the second set, when he rallied from 1-3 to force a tie-break in which he recovered from 1/3 to prevail and assume complete control of the match.
By then striking the ball cleanly off both wings, Tsitsipas surged to an ultimately unassailable 3-1 lead in the third set. The resilience he displayed in his victory was reflected by his lower winners tally of 26 compared to Djere’s 32.
“That second set was very important,” said Tsitsipas. “If you don’t fight back and don’t come up with solutions, you suddenly find yourself at one set all, things change, and psychologically speaking it’s a completely different game. I’m proud of myself, because I didn’t give up there.
“I knew that in the tie-break in the second set, I felt the momentum switching. He missed two shots, and I felt like it was my moment to shine, and I did, so I’m really glad with that.”
Moments before Tsitsipas completed his two-hour, 10-minute victory, Mallorca champion Eubanks had booked his own fourth-round spot by downing Christopher O’Connell 7-6(5), 7-6(3), 7-6(2) on Court 18. The American fired 65 winners, including 23 aces, to claim a two-hour, 53-minute win and reach the fourth round of a major for the first time on his Wimbledon debut.
Dream run continues! 💭🤩@chris_eubanks96 gets past O’Connell 7-6(5), 7-6(3), 7-6(2) and will now face Tsitsipas in the round of 16!@Wimbledon | #wimbledon pic.twitter.com/GcaBVIj96n
— ATP Tour (@atptour) July 8, 2023
“All in all, I’m very, very pleased with how I played,” said Eubanks in his post-match press conference. “It’s always tough having the start and stop of a rain delay, but I thought I was able to kind of stay mentally there.
“I got off to a good start. I think I had an early break in the first, wasn’t able to consolidate, got broken back. But from that point on I thought I served exceptionally well, thought I played the big points well, I returned well late in the third. All in all, I’m really, really pleased with my performance.”