Fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece overcame a gritty challenge from 25th seed Sebastian Baez of Argentina to win the match 7-5 3-6 6-3 in the third round of Madrid Open on Monday. Bernabe Zapata Miralles of Spain waits for him in the fourth round, but the 24-year-old Greek will remain the favorite to make it to the quarterfinal. Out of the Greek’s nine career ATP titles, three have come on clay, including a couple of Masters 1000 titles in Monte Carlo and he should fancy his chances of winning another title on this surface next Sunday. However, for that to happen, he will have to play close to his best, as potential opponents like Carlos Alcaraz will not be easy to overcome.
Stefanos Tsitsipas not very potent on his backhand wing:
Stefanos Tsitsipas is not very comfortable hitting his one-handed backhand and Baez tried to exploit that by pinning him to his backhand corner and then hitting winners down-the-line. Tsitsipas’ upcoming opponents will try to follow the same pattern as well and will target his backhand with their inside-out forehands. However, the Greek has one of the better forehands in the business and will try to use the one-two combination of his powerful serve and forehand to win points, as he almost always does.
Rushing the net to avoid hitting the bakchand as much as possible:
In the third set against Baez, Tsitsipas rushed the net frequently to avoid hitting his backhand from the baseline. That tactic paid off well, as the Greek managed to win the decider convincingly. He might follow that approach against Zapata Miralles, too. However, the Spaniard possesses more power in his strokes than the diminutive Baez. Hence, going forward frequently will also incur the risk of being on the receiving end of his passing strokes. Tsitsipas will have to strike the perfect balance in this regard and it remains to be seen how well he manages to do that.
Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
