Any hope that the short grass court season could provide Stefanos Tsitsipas with relief from his drastic career slump was ended in brutal fashion in a straight-sets defeat to Alex Michelsen at the Halle Open second round on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Tsitsipas, whose struggles have been well documented<\/a>, fell to the powerful-serving Michelsen 7-6 7-5, but it was the manner of the defeat that will have him and new coach Goran Ivanisevic<\/a>c scratching their heads for a solution to the cycle of negativity surrounding the talented Greek star.<\/p>\n After scraping through his first-round match against Luciano Darderi in a third set tie-break, it was likely he was looking towards the match against Michelsen with trepidation, seeing as he already had an 0-2 record against the American–ncluding a chastening four-set defeat at this year’s Australian Open<\/a> that had him questioning his passion for the game<\/a>.<\/p>\n The stark reality, however, was that in the big moments, he was there for the taking. The first set passed by with Michelsen easily holding serve in the early stages and Tsitsipas struggling poorly with his first serve throughout. When it reached the tiebreak, this proved decisive, as the American stepped up and was aggressive throughout–grabbing the mini-break needed to clinch the opener.<\/p>\n The lack of positivity was Tsitsipas’s undoing in the second set, as he lost serve immediately with an error-strewn opening service game. With a first-serve percentage of only 54%, there was a need for Tsitsipas to be more game intelligent on his second-serve play, but it was all too easy to read for Michelsen as he closed in on the win.<\/p>\n Despite saving a match point at 5-3 down, the next passage of play summed up the Tsitsipas woes, as he rallied to save the match point then break Michelsen–only to immediately lose his serve in the next game. Michelsen tightened up and was almost forced into a tiebreak, but again, Tsitsipas was not positive enough with his chance, and the match was deservedly won by the American.<\/p>\nStefanos Tsitsipas’s Nerves Crumbling In Clutch Moments<\/h3>\n