Stefanos Tsitsipas barely survived his previous match at the 2024 Italian Open, but he certainly did much better this time around.
The Greek player has struggled a lot lately but found himself again on clay. He won the Monte-Carlo Masters and made the final in Barcelona, but failed to win that one as Casper Ruud proved better.
The Madrid Open marked regression for the Greek player, but it's always been an event where he struggled to assert his tennis. In Rome, things should have looked better, and they do, though, the match against Jan-Lennard Struff was very shaky.
It's mostly because the German is playing really well and not because Tsitsipas was playing badly. He's playing well, and he proved it in his third-round match, as he easily bested Cameron Norrie in two sets.
The Brit is a solid player on clay with a couple of notable results, but he's not at the level of Tsitsipas if he brings out his big guns. Today was the day as Tsitsipas was spectacular on his serve.
He served well and hit the ball really well, too. The Greek had 14 winners in total in the opening set, which lasted only eight games and finished 6-2 for him. Norrie, on the other hand, mostly faced issues on his second serve.
Tsitsipas returned aggressively and asserted himself on that side of the match, winning many points and causing havoc. That continued in the second set, as he took an early break for the 2-0 lead.
Norrie fought back, though, and broke to level the score at 2-2. From there both players played really well, as neither managed to break through.
The second set ended up in a tie-break which Tsitispas won 7-1 to save himself from playing a third set. He finished with 26 winners and only 9 unforced errors.
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