Chasing his first ATP Tour title of 2023, Stefanos Tsitsipas continues to excel in challenging conditions at the Mifel Tennis Open by Telcel Oppo.
The top seeded Greek breezed past Borna Coric 6-3, 6-2 on Friday night in Los Cabos to reach his third tour-level championship match of the season. The heat and humidity of the Mexican Pacific coast did little to prevent Tsitsipas from delivering a dominant semi-final display, as he wrapped a 72-minute triumph at the ATP 250 without facing a break point.
“Once again, it’s joyful playing on this court,” said Tsitsipas in his on-court interview. “I made myself feel very comfortable today, I’m very happy with that. It’s not easy under these circumstances to reach that level of comfort and I’m really happy with the way things were put together.”
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A break in the sixth game was enough for Tsitsipas to seal the opening set against Coric and he barely looked back in the second as he finished with 20 winners to Coric’s seven overall. Tsitsipas entered 2023 with a 1-3 Lexus ATP Head2Head deficit against Coric but has now defeated the Croatian three times this season (United Cup, Rome, Los Cabos) to lead 4-3.
He will take on Alex de Minaur in Saturday’s championship match. Tsitsipas has beaten the Australian in all nine of the pair’s previous tour-level meetings, but the World No. 5 is taking nothing for granted as he seeks his maiden ATP Tour crown on outdoor hard courts.
“It’s a brand new match for me,” said Tsitsipas. “He’s someone that has played a lot of matches this week, so he’s on a good run. So am I. I’m going to try and put up a fight out there and give it my best shot. Tomorrow is a big fight for me.”
De Minaur earlier overcame Dominik Koepfer 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-1 to improve to 9-0 in Mexico this year. The Acapulco champion converted seven of nine break points he earned in his first match against Kopefer for more than three years to reach his 13th ATP Tour final.
Final bound in Los Cabos 🙌@alexdeminaur battles past Koepfer 6-2 6-7(5) 6-1.@CaboTennisOpen | #ATC2023 pic.twitter.com/wtkgdP4ENi
— ATP Tour (@atptour) August 5, 2023
“Today was a battle. I knew it was never going to be easy against Dominik,” said De Minaur. “He’s been playing some great tennis recently and he’s very dangerous in these conditions. Mexico has treated me very well this year, so hopefully I can go one further tomorrow.”
After De Minaur raced through the first four games on the way to winning the first set, Koepfer returned the favour in set two by building a 4-0 lead of his own with aggressive hitting. But the German was dragged into a tie-break after he missed out on a set point on serve at 5-3, with De Minaur’s resilience bringing him to the brink of a straight-sets win.
From 2/4 in the tie-break, Keopfer reasserted himself. At the crucial moment, he rediscovered his attacking game to win four straight points and ultimately seal the set. Despite breaking the fifth-seeded De Minaur in the opening game of the decider, however, Koepfer, could not maintain his momentum. The Australian reeled off six games in a row to seal his final berth after two hours, 24 minutes.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]