French Open: Stefanos Tsitsipas overcomes Daniil Medvedev to reach semi-finals
Fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas trounced Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), 7-5 to book a spot in the semi-finals of the 2021 French Open. The Greek player improved his head-to-head record against Medvedev to 2-6, having earned his first victory over the Russian since 2019. Tsitsipas has qualified for the semi-finals in Paris for the second year in a row. Here are further details.
Tsitsipas completely dominated Medvedev in the first set, having wrapped it up in mere 32 minutes. However, the latter bounced back in the following set, which was decided via tie-break. Although the competition was neck-to-neck in the third set too, Tsitsipas won 7-5 to storm into the semi-finals. He won a total of 118 points in the match.
Tsitsipas will next face sixth seed Alexander Zverev in a bid to reach his first championship match at a major. These two are the youngest semi-finalists at a Grand Slam since Andy Murray (22) defeated Marin Cilic (21) at the Australian Open in 2010. It is also the youngest Roland Garros semi-final since Rafael Nadal (22) defeated Novak Djokovic (21) in 2008.
At 22 years 305 days, Tsitsipas could become the youngest Grand Slam men's singles champion since 2009 when Juan Martin del Potro won the US Open (20 years 355 days). Notably, the ages will be calculated at the end of the tournament
[6] @AlexZverev is the 3rd German man to reach the #RolandGarros SF in the Open Era, 1st since Michael Stich in 1996 when he was runner-up. It is Zverev's 3rd #GrandSlam SF (2020 @usopen final, 2020 @AustralianOpen SF).
— ATP Media Info (@ATPMediaInfo) June 8, 2021
"I'm playing good. That will show by itself. I don't think there's a player out there [in the draw] that thinks they can't win the tournament," Tsitsipas said after the match. He added, "I think if I keep repeating the process, keep repeating the everyday hustle that I put [in], for sure there's going to be a reward. And why not?"
Both Tsitsipas and Medvedev were 3-0 in Grand Slam quarter-final matches, before the match. The latter had reached this stage in Paris for the first time. He dropped only one set en route to his first Roland Garros quarter-final. Notably, Medvedev produced his first match-win at the French Open this year. He had a 0-4 record ahead of the first round.
