Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Dominic Thiem to advance to the second round of the 2023 Wimbledon on Wednesday.
Playing a rain-delayed match is never easy, and that's something the two protagonists of the first-round blockbuster had to deal with. The match, which started on Tuesday, was postponed multiple times but finally finished on Wednesday.
Entering the third major of the season, neither of the players had great form. The Greek had a bad preparation, winning only one official ATP match, and also securing one exhibition win. On the other hand, the 2020 US Open champion played on the surface this year, losing to good friend Alexander Zverev in Halle.
Thiem was the better player on Tuesday. The Austrian won the opening set in only 30 minutes, taking it 6-3 and entering the contest against the fifth seed in the best possible way. But Tsitsipas was able to regain composure after the rain delay.
The Greek took the second set into a tie-break, and he was clearly the better player in that one, winning it 7-1 and making sure that the match will need to be decided in at least the fourth set.
Riding the momentum wave from the second set, Tsitsipas played a very good third set, having a period when he was almost unplayable for his opponent. The fifth seed won four consecutive games, taking the third set 6-2.
But Thiem managed to force the decider. In a set with only one break point, he forced a tie-break, and controlled that from start to finish after getting the only mini-break, winning the tie-break 7-5 and taking the match into the fifth set.
Both players had one break point in the fifth set, but after those chances went unused, another tie-break had to decide the match, this time a super tie-break. Tsitsipas led by a mini-break twice, but it was the third mini-break that secured him a win, 3-6, 7-6(1), 6-2, 6-7(5), 7-6(8).
Awaiting in the next round is the home crowd favourite, Andy Murray. The Brit had the benefit of playing under the roof and finishing his match early on Tuesday, thanks to that, the two-time Wimbledon champion could rest and prepare for the match, which will be very likely played as the last match on the Centre Court tomorrow.
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