Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece (Team Europe) thrashed Diego Schwartzman of Argentina (Team World) 6-2 6-1 to give his a team a 2-0 lead in the Laver Cup in London on Friday. Casper Ruud had earlier beaten Jack Sock to win the first rubber for Team Europe.
The match lasted for an hour and 15 minutes as Tsitsipas made short work of his diminutive opponent. We will now take a look at three things that stood out in the match:
#1 Tsitsipas used his serve and forehand to good effect:
Tsitsipas, quite expectedly, used his serve and forehand to good effect. His one-two combination won him quite a few points, as Schwartzman struggled to deal with his first serve. The Argentine often landed his returns short, which allowed the Greek to blast his forehand. There were also quite a few tasty crosscourt forehand exchanges between the two in the first set.
Tsitsipas raced to a 3-0 lead by breaking the Argentine in the second game of the first set. He then broke Schwartzman again in the eighth game to win the first set convincingly. Schwartzman’s average first serve speed remained below 110 mph and it allowed Tsitsipas to hit his returns with great power.
#2 Schwartzman put pressure on Tsitsipas’ backhand with some success:
Schwartzman started directing more traffic to Tsitsipas’ backhand wing towards the latter stages of the first set. He tried to prevent the Greek from dictating terms with his powerful backhand and that tactic worked to an extent. Moreover, Tsitsipas kept relying on his crosscourt backhand most of the times and struggled to hit the down-the-line backhand
Schwartzman broke Tsitsipas in the first game of the second set after the Greek had saved a few break points. However, Tsitsipas then broke back in the subsequent game to draw level and regain the momentum.
#3 Tsitsipas kept going around his backhand to get the better of his opponent:
Tsitsipas kept going around his backhand repeatedly and hit a flurry of inside-out forehands to test Schwartzman’s court-coverage. The slow surface also allowed the Greek enough time to do so. He also continued to play some nice approach shots before going to the net to finish points.
The Greek won six games in a row after the reversal in the first game of the second set, breaking the Argentine thrice in the process. Tsitsipas was broken five times in his seven service games and could win only 43% and 36% of the points on his first and second serves, respectively.
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