Stefanos Tsitsipas secured two match points to claim his third win in recent weeks over Grigor Dimitrov at the Italian Open, Rome.
But among the three victories, this time the victory had to be fought even harder before the Greek tennis player snatched a 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 victory.
“What a fight. I feel very happy that I was able to overcome that hurdle,” said Tsitsipas, who has beaten Dimitrov in Barcelona and Madrid this season.
“Grigor did really well, gave me a tough time.”
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“Just so much emotion. The fact that I was able to process all of that and came back stronger in the third set tiebreak, it was a great way to make amends for not being able to defend the last game of the second set.”
The fourth seed is likely to close out what could be a third straight sets win over Dimitrov. But he was broken before the Bulgarian snatched four games in a row and forced the decider.
In the third set, the 2017 ATP Finals champion, Dimitrov created match point opportunities at 5-4 and 6-5. But the fourth seed saved the first chance with a game of serve and volleyed on his second serve and the second chance was secured with a hard return that sent the match into the tiebreaker.
Entering the tiebreak, the 2022 Monte Carlo Open champion stepped on the gas by snatching a 5/0 advantage, but Dimitrov used a fine backhand return to bounce back to 5/4.
The Greek tennis player refused to give up and endured the tension in order to advance to the third round of the Italian Open.
“It was like playing in the Colosseum,” admits Stefanos Tsitsipas of the atmosphere at the Grand Stand Arena.
“There was so much energy coming from the audience. I think the people who came to watch the game this time were very fixated on the game. It created a great atmosphere and the pitch was like a stunning gladiator situation.”
At his best, the fourth seed uses his forehands to open the court and dictate play, including periodically finishing points in the net.
With his 28th win of the season, the fourth seed equals 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz who has also bagged that many wins. In addition, he has now won the last four meetings against Dimitrov while claiming the fifth win out of a total of six encounters.
With that loss, Dimitrov is now 15-10 in 2022. But he is on track to reach 30 wins this season for the first time since 2017, when he ended the season as world No. 3. Earlier this month he returned to the top 20 for the first time in nearly 12 months.
For a place in the Italian Open quarter-finals, Tsitsipas will face Karen Khachanov who eliminated 15th seed Pablo Carreno Busta 6-4, 2-6, 6-1.
