Greek teen terrier sends champion packing
Greek teenager Stefanos Tsitsipas pulled off another upset at the Rogers Cup, saving two match points in a 3-6, 7-6 (11), 6-4 victory over defending champion Alexander Zverev yesterday in Toronto.
Zverev, the second-seeded German star coming off a victory last week in Washington, double-faulted on match point to send Tsitsipas to his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semifinal.
“I kind of fooled him when I was on the court,” Tsitsipas said. “I did some things that he didn’t expect me to do.”
The 19-year-old Tsitsipas beat seventh-seeded Dominic Thiem and ninth-seeded Novak Djokovic to reach the quarter-finals. He’s the youngest player to beat three top-10 players in one tournament since Rafael Nadal — who also was 19 — in 2006 at Monte Carlo.
Tsitsipas will face fourth-seeded Kevin Anderson in the semifinals, trying to become the youngest to beat four straight top-10 players in an event since the ATP World Tour was established in 1990.
Anderson beat fifth-seeded Grigor Dimitrov 6-2, 6-2. In the night quarterfinals, Karen Khachanov beat Robin Haase 6-3, 6-1, and the top-seeded Nadal faced sixth-seeded Marin Cilic.
Zverev was upset with his play — and wasn’t that impressed with Tsitsipas, either.
“I always say when the opponent played better, I’m probably one of the most honest guys on tour,” Zverev said. “[Yesterday] was an absolutely pathetic match. I don’t think he played well. To be honest, we played three sets and all three sets should have been 3, 3 and 3,” Zverev said. “If we would have played best-of-five, that’s what the score should have been.”
Tsitsipas struggled with a firstserve percentage of 47 per cent, well below Zverev at 70 per cent. But the teen converted all four of his breakpoint opportunities, while Zverev was five for 14.