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From the walk of the first set, Stefanos Tsitsipas had to save a match point against Andrei Rublev and close the “death date” with Rafael Nadal on Thursday at the ATP Finals!
Finally good, all good!
In a crazy match, which had nothing to do with the poor quality of the Nadal-Tim match, but which had a terrible suspense until the end, a two-faced Stefanos Tsitsipas managed to get what he wanted, which was victory anyway, before Andrei Rublev. 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (6), And stay alive at this year’s ATP Finals!
Stefanos’ victory went through a thousand waves, culminating in Andrei Rublev’s double mistake at his match point (!) But at the end of the day he got what he wanted.
It operates and means that things are simple: you have to beat Rafael Nadal with any score to get the ticket to the semi-finals of the tournament!
Of course, this is not easy, with Nadal “burning” for the victory since he has the same bet and he, however, in the event of a loss to Roublef, Tsitsipas would be a meter and a half from the final (he would like 2- 0 win against Nadal and Rublev’s loss against Tim).
Fortunately, he avoided it and we are already counting the hours for the game of life and death on Thursday that captivates all eyes since the second entry of the group will be judged since Tim, as of today, has already reserved his for him ” 4″.
In the match with Roublef, Stefanos, where he showed and was able to go to the match in a relatively comfortable victory in straight sets, only this did not happen in the end as he lost too many opportunities to “kill” his opponent.
In other games of the year he paid for it by losing the game (as with Rublev in Hamburg), and the truth is that something similar could happen on Tuesday if the Russian did not make a double error in his match point.
The first set was a healthy walk for Tsitsipas who in 19 minutes made it 1-0 against a heartbreaking Rublev who was present in the match, as if he had already been eliminated!
The omens seemed perfect, however Rublev began to play more painfully in the second set with Tsitsipas taking two break point opportunities in the middle of the set to put a gravestone on any hopes of the Russian.
Somewhere began Stefanos’ loss of critical missed opportunities in the match, a pattern that would accompany us until the end of the match.
The Russian took his “life” from that moment, began to play clearly better and punished Tsitsipas who made a bad game with his serve at 4-5 and tied!
Now he was tangled up and needed a lot of mental reserves to get back.
Tsitsipas lost five break points at the start of the third set in a single game and kept “flirting” with defeat, missing so many chances, yet managed to at least not let the Russian reach a break point the entire set.
The tie break judged the situation and, like the whole match, it was crazy!
Tsitsipas went ahead 5-2 but Rublev took four consecutive points, had a match point at 6-5 but made the fatal double error there (a grueling rally preceded him).
That’s.
Stefanos finally smelled “blood” and with two consecutive points he achieved this vital victory, he has survived and wants a victory against the legend Rafa to stay on the defensive trajectory!
ATP FINAL DRAWING | OOP (-2h)
Costas Aitakis
