Los Cabos [Mexico] August 4 : Stefanos Tsitsipas held his nerve to defeat Nicolas Jarry 6-7(6), 7-6(4), 6-2 in Mifel Tennis Open and reach the semifinals on his debut at the hard-court ATP 250.
Tsitsipas had to hold his nerve as Jarry dominated the first half of the two-hour, 58-minute match, but a strong second-set tie-break performance proved crucial before the Greek dominated the decider.
“Sometimes you feel like those kinds of matches are very important for your continuation in a tournament. You get to play at a high intensity and a very high level, and it kind of brings the best out of you. I hope to move forwards stronger from this point onwards, to learn from this match, and take away as much as I can," Tsitsipas was quoted by ATP.com.
Jarry's powerful serving helped him overcome Tsitsipas in the pair's previous Lexus ATP Head2Head clash on Halle's grass in June. On the Mexican Pacific coast, the Chilean found strong rhythm behind his delivery once more, but he began to suffer physically in the last set, which Tsitsipas converted both break points he gained.
“He was serving big, and in important moments where I had the chance to break, he was always coming up with a big serve. It was something that made it a bit difficult. Those moments that I had to convert, I was trying to get behind the ball and the ball was constantly on the line. There isn’t much you can do," said Tsitsipas of the need to stay patient on return.
On his Los Cabos debut, fourth-seeded Borna Coric defeated Ilya Ivashka 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the semi-finals. Coric's match against Tsitsipas on Friday will be his second tour-level semi-final of the season, following his run to the final four on clay at the Mutua Madrid Open in May.
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