What a thriller in the OWL arena! The no. three-seeded Greek player Stefanos Tsitsipas had to do overtime at his kick-off match at the 30. TERRA WORTMANN OPEN against Gregoire Barrere from France. In the end he got through in three sets after 2 hours and 22 minutes. During his 6:7, 6:4 and 7:6 win he had to overcome some very critical moments.
Tsitsipas seemed uninspired in the first set, overall his returns didn’t get off at all. Even though getting six break chances in total, he wasn’t able to use one. Barrere fended off a set point, too, and used his chance to win the set. The 29 year-old world tennis’s no. 58 won the tiebreak 8:6.
The French player seemed to be the man of the match in the second round. He got the break at 2:1 and increased to 3:1. The end seemed to draw nearer for the Greek player. But all of a sudden, the former ATP world champion played big. He got a re-break (3:3) and took his opponents service at 5:4. This meant winning the set 6:4.
In the third set they played fairly even, Tsitsipas went back to the gloominess of the first round, was on track in the right moments. For Barrere was leading 40:0, but Tsitsipas fended off all break points, which were nearly small match points and the score went to 5:4. It went into the tiebreak again, which was dominated by the 24 year-old from Athens. He converted the first match point 7:3. A hard piece of work for Tsitsipas, he has to boost his performance, though, to not lose to Nicolas Jarry in the round of 16.
Because Tsitispas performances in Halle are not very stable. After winning his kick-off matches in 2018 and 2022 he failed in the second rounds. Overall: The 24 year-old is not so strong on grass as on other surfaces. Though he won a tour title last year in Mallorca, he only made it once out of five to the round of 16 in Wimbledon. That was back in 2018. Tsitsipas had his biggest career victory in the ATP finals in London a year later.
