Stefanos Tsitsipas overcame a really inspired effort from Borna Gojo to beat him in two sets and set up a blockbuster clash against Daniil Medvedev at the 2023 Vienna Open.
Tsitsipas played a pretty solid event last week in Antwerp, but he's playing far better this week in Vienna. The conditions in the Austrian capital suit his game better because it does play faster than Antwerp, making his serve much deadlier.
This was always going to be a complicated matchup for Tsitsipas because of the way Gojo approaches tennis. It's the style that gives the Greek a lot of problems, especially indoors and on a good serving day by the Croatian.
Tsitsipas actually started well by jumping out to an early lead, but he gave the break right away, which ensured that the opening set finished in a tie-break. It was a close one as the Greek trailed 3-4 before winning four points to win the tiebreak 7-4.
Gojo's problem wasn't that he didn't play well; it was that he was a bit too eager. He totalled 17 winners but also 12 unforced errors, which was too much as 8 of his 17 winners were aces. So basically, in play, he was 9-9, which wasn't good enough.
The second set was another complicated one, as Tsitsipas had to save early break points to keep himself in the match. He did, and from there, it was mostly comfortable for both players. At 5-5, Tsitsipas got some good chances and converted them to take a 6-5 lead.
He nearly threw it all away by falling behind 0-40 on his serve but played a couple of fantastic rallies to actually save all of them and finish off the match in two sets.
The final score was 7-6(4) 7-5 for the Greek who had 26 winners and only one unforced error. He'll face Daniil Medvedev, who bested Karen Khachanov earlier today next.
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