The rising superstar from Greece, Stefanos Tsitsipas, overcame one of the biggest challenges in tennis – beating a motivated Novak Djoković on a hard-court Masters tournament after losing the opening set. He defeated the world no. 1 in three sets 6:3, 5:7, 3:6, and advanced to the semi-finals where he will face another next-gen prospect Daniil Medvedev.
Djoković went into the match very engaged and focused, and it appeared that he was on the top of his game, at least in the first set. The Greek, on the other hand, was notably nervous at the beginning, which resulted in a fast break in the second game of the match. After 3-0, it seemed as Djoković had everything under control – he served exceptionally well and dictated the points, just the way he prefers.
Until the end of the first set, both players were holding their serves, and Tsitsipas couldn’t recover from the early break, which resulted in a 1-0 result on the scoreboard.
In the second set, we saw a completely different picture. Novak’s level started to plummet while the Greek was playing just solid enough to stay in the match. Tsitsipas had a couple of breakpoints, but Djoković saved them all. Stefanos was threatening throughout the second set, waiting for his chances, but the 16-time Grand Slam champion preserved his serve.
At 6:5 in the second set, Tsitsipas realized that he needs to take it up a notch if he was to have any chance against the world number one. And he did – thanks to a couple of winners and Djoković’s poor decision making, he managed to break his serve and force the decider.
From that point on, it was the Greek who dictated the points and took over entirely. He broke Djoković and took a 4-1 lead relatively quickly, at which point Novak was mentally broken. The 16-time Grand Slam champion seemed overwhelmed, and before we knew it, the 21-year-old wunderkind had two match points. He failed to use the first one but capitalized the second.
Tsitsipas is the only player who beat all members of the Big Three in 2019. He beat Federer in Australian Open, Nadal in Madrid, and now he outlasted Novak Djoković.
Tsitsipas will face Daniil Medvedev in the semi-finals on Saturday.
