Alexander Zverev vs Stefanos Tsitsipas: Decoding the key stats (2021)
What's the story
Germany's Alexander Zverev dominated the 2021 ATP Tour with a record-breaking six titles. In November, he clinched his second ATP Finals title after beating Daniil Medvedev. The rivalry between Zverev and world number five Stefanos Tsitsipas made headlines this year. Both stars won over 55 matches in the season. The duo met three times this year, either in the semi-finals or finals.
Context
Why does it matter?
Zverev finished the 2021 season as the most successful player. He won the most number of titles in the season (6), including the historic gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. He won the second-most matches on the ATP Tour (59-15) after Medvedev. On the other hand, Tsitsipas clinched two titles and registered a win-loss record of 55-19.
H2H
Head-to-head record: Tsitsipas 6-3 Zverev
Tsitsipas leads Zverev 6-3 in the ATP head-to-head series. The latter won two of these encounters in 2021 (Cincinnati Masters semi-final and Acapulco final). Before that, Zverev was win-less in the last five matches against Tsitsipas (2020 ATP Cup, 2019 ATP Finals, 2019 Beijing, 2019 Madrid Masters, and 2018 Canada Masters). Zverev had won the first encounter between the two players (2018 Washington).
Cincinnati
Zverev stormed into the final after beating Tsitsipas
In August, Zverev claimed a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(4) win over Tsitsipas to storm into the final of the Western and Southern Open. The German was feeling unwell throughout the match. He was down a double break at 1-4 in the third set. He later produced an emphatic comeback to win the semi-final. The win had extended the winning streak of Zverev to 10 matches.
French Open
Tsitsipas downed Zverev to reach his maiden Grand Slam final
Tsitsipas entered his maiden Grand Slam final after defeating Zverev in the semi-final of the 2021 French Open. The Greek player won the epic encounter 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3 after three hours and 37 minutes. The match featured the youngest semi-finalists at a Grand Slam since Andy Murray (22) defeated Marin Cilic (21) at the Australian Open in 2010.
Information
Zverev overcame Tsitsipas in Acapulco
In March, Zverev beat Tsitsipas 6-4, 7-6(3) to win his 14th ATP title, in Acapulco. As per ATP, Tsitsipas and Zverev were contesting the first final here between the top two seeds since 2015 (number two David Ferrer beat number one Kei Nishikori 6-3, 7-5.).