Stefanos Tsitsipas put the brakes on the in-form Felix Auxer Aliassim and passed to the “16” of the Paris Masters.
Showing character at the crucial points of the match, the top Greek tennis player (No.6) defeated the 23-year-old Canadian (No.19) 6-3, 7-6(4) in 1 hour and 48 minutes and now awaits the winner of the match between Hugo Uber and Sasha Zverev.
It was his first win over a Top 50 player since last August in Cincinnati, and it came against a top-20 opponent who walked away with the trophy from Basel on a six-game winning streak. Steph’s improvement had been seen since the tournaments in Antwerp and Vienna.
Among other things, it was another step towards the ATP Finals (12-19/11) and everything indicates that he will be present at the last big date of the year in Turin. He will surely seal the ticket if he qualifies for the eight of the event.
The 25-year-old tennis player impressively won the first set, but found himself behind in the score in the second and almost got into… adventures. He raised his level, however, at the most opportune time and continues his run in the final Masters of the season, which Carlos Alcarath and Daniil Medvedev have already bid farewell to
Note that both of them were at the bottom of the table along with Tsitsipas, so the path to the final is wide open.
Stefanos was faced with double break points only in the first game of the match, but managed to stay upright and then take the lead with the break he scored in the fourth game (3-1).
He had no trouble closing out the set when he served at 5-3, however Felix came on strong in the second and went 0-3 ahead. He saved a break point in the fifth game and was up three set points at 2-5, but Steph held his serve, saved a fourth set point in the next game and sent the set to a tiebreak.
Felix had the answer to Tsitsipas’ first mini-break, however the same did not happen in the second (5-3), as a result of which Steph found himself with double match point (6-4) and took advantage of his first opportunity.
The Canadian paid for his very poor second serve percentage (16%, 3/19), while converting just one of his seven break points. The winners were 15-25, but Stefanos had 19 unforced errors and Felix 35.
It was Tsitsipas’ sixth win in nine matches against Aliasim, who had won their previous meeting last February in the Rotterdam final.
The matches for the “16” phase of the competition will take place tomorrow (2/11).
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