By career and intention, Stefanos Tsitsipas already deserved to play a Grand Slam final and this Friday he managed to reach the first of his career at Roland Garros. The 22-year-old Greek defeated by 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6 and 6-3 in 3:37 to the German Alexander Zverev (24), who last year brushed against the glory of victory at the US Open, but fell to Dominic Thiem (27). Three players with parallel lives, who were progressively called upon to be the successors to the Big Three of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. Tsitsipas had lost three major semi-finals to three great rivals: Australia 2019 against Nadal and 2021 against Medvedev, and Roland Garros 2020 against Djokovic. On Sunday he will seek his first title against one of them, the Spanish or the Serbian.
Stefanos is the youngest finalist in Paris since Rafa in 2008, who was at 22 years and five days, and Grand Slams in general since Andy Murray at the 2010 Australian Open when the Brit was 22 and 261.
It’s your moment, @steftsitsipas. 💙
Soak it in. #Roland Garros pic.twitter.com/zHhhXRBwoc
– Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 11, 2021
The audience of the Philippe Chatrier attended a NextGen semi-final, the youngest in combined age in a major since Murray (22) and Marin Cilic (21) played at the Australian Open in 2010. The Athenian was a favorite because he is the season’s leader in wins on gravel (22-3) and on the all-surface count. (39-8). But it was not easy for him to defeat Zverev, even though he clearly outplayed him in the first two sets. And it is that when he best had it to win on the fast track, his unforced errors increased in a worrying way and the third set escaped him in a bad third game by conceding the second break of the game against him. The Teuton’s serve, who was outraged by the chair umpire for a ball that sang inside and he saw outside, worked in that reaction phase and his reaction continued in the fourth quarter with an exit break that he knew how to consolidate. Sascha was moving fast, good; Tsitsipas getting worse. So the one from Hamburg began to believe it because, in addition, he had already come back from 0-2 before, in the US Open 2020 against Pablo Carreño.
Emotions
And the fifth and final set was reached. Hellenic raised a 0-40 in the first game. Critical moment and turning point. He got into the game with blows and screams. He broke to go 3-1 and serve. He consolidated the lead and no longer allowed Zverev to recover. His father and coach, Apostolos, who sometimes has strong arguments with him, got excited in the stands. His son cried before whispering: “I come from humble roots, from a small place. My dream was to play here and I couldn’t imagine … “. He had succeeded.
Results, table and calendar.
15/22
68%
24/32
75%
10/32
31%
8/22
36%
0/0
0%
1/2
fifty%
3
1
3
1
16
fifteen
26/34
76%
19/23
82%
9/23
39%
17/34
fifty%
1/1
100%
3/6
fifty%
two
0
1
0
twenty-one
fifteen
27/31
87%
25/29
86%
10/29
3. 4%
9/31
29%
1/1
100%
0/1
0%
two
3
0
0
13
13
21/24
87%
25/27
92%
9/27
33%
4/24
16%
1/1
100%
0/0
0%
1
1
0
1
7
13
24/31
77%
22/28
78%
7/28
25%
13/31
41%
0/3
0%
1/5
twenty%
4
3
3
1
18
9
113/142
79%
115/139
82%
45/139
32%
51/142
35%
3/6
fifty%
5/14
35%
12
8
7
3
75
65