Third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece beat Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands 6-2 7-6 6-3 in a third-round match of the Australian Open in Melbourne on Friday. The 24-year-old Greek will take on Jannik Sinner of Italy in the fourth round on Sunday.
Tsitsipas did not give the Dutchman much of a chance in the match and stamped his authority on it from the beginning.
How Stefanos Tsitsipas Beat Tallon Griekspoor at the Australian Open
Tsitsipas ruled with his forehand in the first set:
Tsitsipas dictated terms in most of the rallies of the first set with his powerful forehand. Griekspoor served big on most occasions, but often committed errors off his backhand to make things easier for the Greek.
Tsitsipas’ down-the-line forehand often had the Dutchman in trouble as the former broke him twice in the first set to win it quite comfortably. Griekspoor could win only 40% of the points on his second serve in the set, while Tsitsipas managed a commendable 71%.
Griekspoor kept rushing the net frequently, but Tsitsipas remained the better player:
Griekspoor rushed the net quite frequently, as his groundstrokes failed to trouble the Greek on most of the occasions. However, the Dutchman also hit a few volleys into the net and won 20 of the 30 net points in the match.
Tsitsipas, meanwhile, kept playing drop shots to drag his opponent into the net and then finished points with volleys. The Greek fared better than his opponent in the net, too, by winning 21 of 25 points.
Griekspoor held his own in the second set by taking it to the tie-break, but committed a few unforced errors off his backhand to allow the Greek to go 2-0 up. Tsitsipas then again got the decisive break in the third set before serving out the match easily.
Tsitsipas hit 32 winners against Griekspoor’s 26 in the match and committed 26 unforced errors against the Dutchman’s 37. The Greek looked in good nick and will take some stopping in the tournament.
Main Photo from Getty.
