Tsitsipas puts on clay clinic to reach 4th straight Rome QF
Stefanos Tsitsipas continued his dominance of Alex de Minaur with a 6-1, 6-2 win on Tuesday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. The Greek raced through a 23-minute opening set and never looked back in a supreme display of clay-court tennis that mixed patience with power at all the right moments.
“I wanted to do my best on the court by bringing the highest quality to my strokes, and I delivered,” Tsitsipas said after the match. “Throughout the match, I was fairly consistent with my serves and ball placement. I was able to painstakingly create those spots and then wait for the shorter balls to appear.
“I believe my opponent felt the heaviness and depth of my ball. It gave me strength and a strong belief in myself that I could keep going in that way. I knew I had something positive going for me today.
Tsitsipas saw his perfect 10-0 Lexus ATP Head2Head record against De Minaur spoiled when the Aussie won their last meeting in Acapulco, but the sixth seed reasserted himself in Rome with one of his best performances of the year.
Now 13-2 on clay this season, the Monte-Carlo champion and Barcelona finalist is into his 23rd ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinal and his fourth straight in Rome. The Greek continues his impressive turnaround after an 11-6 start to the 2024 season on hard courts, a relative slump that saw him briefly drop out of the Top 10 of the PIF ATP Rankings.
Hitting with supreme confidence off both baseline wings, the Greek surrendered serve for the only time at 4-1 in the second set but broke back immediately to extinguish any hope of a De Minaur comeback. Tsitsipas won 56 per cent of his return points (23/41) and converted on five of eight break points, according to Infosys ATP Stats
