American Tiafoe rallies in Vienna
American qualifier Frances Tiafoe rallied to beat Stefanos Tsitsipas, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna for his second win in four months over the top-seeded Greek.
Tiafoe upset Tsitsipas in straight sets in the opening round at Wimbledon in June, but failed to win a set when the pair met again at the Tokyo Olympics the following month.
But the 49th-ranked American proved his triumph at the All England Club was no fluke, as he battled back from 3-0 down in the final set to win six of the next seven games.
Thursday’s win was Tiafoe’s first in seven matches against a top-three player, as Tsitsipas reached his career-high No. 3 ranking in August.
The result denied Tsitsipas a tour-leading 15th quarterfinal of the season.
In his fourth quarterfinal of the year, Tiafoe will take on Diego Schwartzman, who outlasted Gael Monfils 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-2.
Second-seeded Alexander Zverev defeated Alex De Minaur 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 for the German’s 300th win.
More tennis
Top-seeded Simona Halep overcame a back injury to defeat Varvara Gracheva of Russia, 6-4, 6-2, and reach the quarterfinals of the Transylvania Open in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Second-seeded Anett Kontaveit and U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu also had straight-set wins to advance to the final eight of the Romanian indoor event. Halep, who missed Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the Tokyo Olympics due to a calf injury, was visibly hampered in her movement but capitalized on her strong serve and a number of unforced errors by Gracheva.
• Taylor Fritz celebrated his 24th birthday by beating doubles partner Tommy Paul, 7-6 (3), 6-4, to advance to the quarterfinals of the St. Petersburg Open in Russia. The California native jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first set and capitalized on Paul’s early double-fault in the tiebreaker. Paul converted just one of his four break points.
College
The No. 4-ranked Pitt volleyball team (18-2, 8-2 ACC) will close out the month of October with a pair of home matches at Fitzgerald Field House against Wake Forest (11-10, 2-8 ACC) and Virginia Tech (9-13, 0-10 ACC) Friday and Sunday, respectively.
• The No. 12 Pitt men’s soccer team plays host to No. 21 Virginia Tech on senior day in the final regular-season match of the season at 7 p.m. Friday night at Ambrose Urbanic Field.