Stefanos Tsitsipas has won his first singles match, against Botic van de Zandschulp, after some very clever points. He is in the quarterfinals against Yannick Hanfmann. The German has beaten Dominic Thiem in three sets. Hugo Gaston and Maximilian Marterer are the other quarter-finalists of the European Open 2023.
The first evening match at the European Open was played by Botic van de Zandschulp and first series leader Stefanos Tsisipas. It was the first time the two tennis titans faced each other on court. In set 1, van de Zandschulp immediately had to pull out all the stops when he soon had to overcome a 0-40 deficit. Van de Zandschulp still won his serve game and came back stronger than he started. Shortly afterwards, it was the Greek who had to eliminate break balls. Tsitsipas did not succeed and had to chase immediately. Tsitsipas’ top tennis showed a little later. The Greek snuffed out van de Zandschulp’s serve game and climbed back on level terms: 5-5. The former world number three played strong, going through van de Zandschulp’s serve and winning the first set 7-5. In set two, Tsitsipas’ play still proved to be of a higher level than van de Zandschulp’s. One break was enough to win the set and thus the match. It became 7-5 and 6-3. “In the beginning I found it hard to find the right rhythm. I am very much looking forward to the rest of the tournament and the vibe with the opponents is good”, Tsitsipas said after his win.
23-year-old Hugo Gaston also played on Center Court against world number 27 Jan-Lennard Struff. Despite his lower ranking, Gaston started the match stronger. The German immediately lost his serve game. Gaston continued on this momentum and got to a 5-2 lead. Struff felt like it and was able to go through his opponent’s serve. Struff came into the match and fought back to a score of 5-5. Gaston let his lead slip through his fingers, lost his next serve game and gave the set away: 5-7. Set two of the match took almost exactly the same course. A strong start by Gaston again provided a smooth 5-2 lead. Struff did not fancy a third set and came back to a score of 6-6. The Frenchman needed to win this to stay in the match. An exciting tiebreak ended with a score of 7-5 in the Frenchman’s favour. The decisive third set of the match was one of a very high standards. Both players unpacked with everything they had to offer. This time, nobody let a serving game slip and it already came to a tiebreak. Again, the battle was even. Both men got several match balls but neither could finish it off. In the end, it was Gaston who was able to win his match ball on Struff’s serve. It was 5-7, 7-6(5) and 7-6(11).
Dominic Thiem played against Yannick Hanfmann, who managed to knock Alexander Blockx out of the tournament. Thiem was looking for the right rhythm in the first set, Hanfmann managed to win it 6-4. In a very well-balanced second set, it was Thiem who eventually won the match: 7-5. In the decisive third set, Thiem gave away his serve game immediately (0-1), but a rebreak followed. It remained exciting, but Thiem slammed his opponent’s match ball against the net: the Austrian eliminated (4-6).
