Teenager’s big fat Greek victory
Tsitsipas, 19, thrills Rogers Cup crowd, beating defending champ Zverev
TORONTO — Greek teenager Stefanos Tsitsipas pulled off another upset at the Rogers Cup tennis tournament Friday by eliminating defending champion Alexander Zverev, 3-6, 7-6 (11), 6-4.
Zverev, the No. 2 seed, double-faulted on match point as Tsitsipas reached his first career semifinal at an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event.
Tsitsipas beat seventh-seeded Dominic Thiem and ninth-seeded Novak Djokovic earlier in the week.
He’s the youngest player to beat three top-10 players at one tournament since Rafael Nadal — who was also 19 — did it at Monte Carlo in 2006.
Tsitsipas will next face fourth-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa in the semifinals at Aviva Centre.
Anderson posted a comfortable 6-2, 6-2 victory over fifth-seeded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria.
Tsitsipas started with a bang on a warm, sunny afternoon on centre court, reeling off eight straight points for a quick 2-0 lead. Zverev answered by winning the next four games before taking the set in just 32 minutes.
The 21-year-old German broke early in the second set but Tsitsipas eventually broke back and held to pull even at 5-5.
In the tiebreaker, Zverev won a 20-shot rally to get his first match point at 6-5 but Tsitsipas poured on the pressure from the baseline and used a smash to tie it.
Tsitsipas saved a second match point before converting his fifth set point at 13-11 when Zverev sprayed a return wide.
Both players secured early breaks in the deciding set and Tsitsipas did well to save three break points to pull ahead 5-4.
At 30-40, Zverev floated his second serve long to end it. Zverev defeated Tsitsipas in straight sets last week in Washington in their first career meeting.