Stefanos Tsitsipas and Ilya Ivashka finished their Barcelona Open second-round match over 24 hours after it began, with the Greek winning 6-1, 4-6, 6-2.
The match started yesterday afternoon, but rain postponed it after two games. Players often face rain delays, and they have learned to deal with them. The Greek was coming off a triumph at the Monte-Carlo Masters and wanted to follow up on that win.
A couple of hours later, the players stepped out again, and Tsisipas could outplay his opponent as Ivashka struggled to find any rhythm. After the Greek took a 5-1 lead, the match was suspended once more due to the rain.
Well, initially scheduled to start early today, the match did not start until the evening as the rain was falling all day long. The main court was flooded and unable to be played at, so the players took to court number two, which created a bit of drama only two points after the resumption.
A group of fans was not happy with the smaller court, so they started shouting during rallies, after which the players abandoned playing. After the fans were removed from the stands, play resumed over 15 minutes after it began.
Luckily, that was the only delay until the end of the match, and attempt number 4 at finishing the match proved successful. Tsitsipas finished off the first set 6-1, with the 2nd set featuring very competitive play by both. Ivashka played better and better, ultimately winning the set with 6-4.
Tsitsipas simply played too casually against an opponent who was more than capable of playing good tennis. Realizing his mistake, Tsitsipas sharpened up his focus in the final set, taking an early break. He proved focused enough to see off Ivashka 6-2 in the final set.
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