Persistence paid off for Stefanos Tsitsipas on Thursday at the Mifel Tennis Open by Telcel Oppo.
The top seed held his nerve to down Nicolas Jarry 6-7(6), 7-6(4), 6-2 in Los Cabos and reach the semi-finals on his debut at the hard-court ATP 250. Tsitsipas had to hang tough as Jarry held the upper hand in the first half of the two-hour, 58-minute encounter, but a strong second-set tie-break display proved pivotal before the Greek dominated the decider.
“Sometimes you feel like those kinds of matches are very important for your continuation in a tournament,” said Tsitsipas. “You get to play at a high intensity and a very high level, and it kind of brings the best out of you. I hope to move forwards stronger from this point onwards, to learn from this match, and take away as much as I can.”
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Jarry’s big serving had helped him defeat Tsitsipas in the pair’s previous Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting in June on the grass of Halle. The Chilean found good rhythm behind his delivery again on the Mexican Pacific coast, but he began to struggle physically in a deciding set in which Tsitsipas converted both break points he earned.
“He was serving big, and in important moments where I had the chance to break, he was always coming up with a big serve,” said Tsitsipas of the need to stay patient on return. “It was something that made it a bit difficult. Those moments that I had to convert, I was trying to get behind the ball and the ball was constantly on the line. There isn’t much you can do.”
Now 37-13 for the season, Tsitsipas rose above Andrey Rublev to fourth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin as a result of his triumph over Jarry. The 2019 Nitto ATP Finals champion, chasing his first crown on outdoor hard courts this week in Mexico, will take on Borna Coric in Friday’s semi-finals as he seeks a third tour-level final of the season.
The fourth-seeded Coric defeated Ilya Ivashka 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the semi-finals on his Los Cabos debut. Friday’s clash with Tsitsipas will be Coric’s second tour-level semi-final of the season, after he reached the last four on the clay at the Mutua Madrid Open in May.
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