Tsitsipas Breezes Past Ymer For Fourth-Round Spot
After a pair of bruising encounters to open his Roland Garros campaign, Stefanos Tsitsipas appeared keen to avoid working overtime again on Saturday afternoon.
The Greek raced through to an impressive 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 win over Mikael Ymer to make it four consecutive fourth-round appearances at the clay-court Grand Slam. The World No. 4 was dominant from start to finish on Court Suzanne Lenglen, taking control early in all three sets to ease to a 92-minute victory.
Although the No. 95-ranked Ymer struggled to produce his best on his second third-round appearance in Paris, it was a high-class showing from Tsitsipas. The fourth seed’s groundstrokes were firmly struck yet remained accurate throughout as he broke the Swede’s serve seven times in a one-sided encounter.
“[There were] a lot of good rallies from my side," said Tsitsipas in his on-court interview. "I have a long history with Mikael, playing in juniors, and we’ve played each other a lot. I would like to congratulate him on his great effort, he had a good run to the third round once more. It was a good game from my side. I played really well and topped it off with some really good, patient tennis.”
It was a vastly different story to Tsitsipas’ opening wins over Lorenzo Musetti and Zdenek Kolar, matches which ran for just over three-and-a-half hours and four hours respectively. Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters champion Tsitsipas will hope the display is an indication he is approaching top form as he bids to lift a maiden Grand Slam title in the French capital.
“I played a bit later in the [previous] two matches," said Tsitsipas. "There wasn’t much sun, the conditions seemed a bit drier and colder. I saw it differently today compared to the other two days for sure. I felt much more free with my ball, was able to create a little bit more and find angles, and really push a lot with my ball. It helped a lot mentally, being aware of the next shot, having that confidence.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]
Tsitsipas broke the Ymer serve in the fifth and seventh games of both the first and second sets, pulling his opponent around the court effectively with some powerful hitting combined with imaginative drop shots. Ymer produced a series of effective drop shots of his own in the second set, displaying some of the quality that took him past 29th seed Daniel Evans in the second round, but he was unable to consistently pressure his opponent.
Three breaks of serve in the third set saw Tsitsipas run out a convincing winner, with the Greek’s serve also looking in good shape. Tsitsipas dropped just 10 points on serve in the match as he moved to a Tour-leading 34th match win of the year.
The win improves Tsitsipas’ ATP Head2Head series record against Ymer to 4-0, with the Greek having won 11 from 11 sets against the Swede across their four meetings. His opponent in the fourth round in Paris will be Holger Rune or Hugo Gaston.