Stefanos sails into semifinals

World number six Stefanos Tsitsipas got a win over American Reilly Opelka to reach the semifinals of the Western & Southern Open, while Maria Sakkari fell to Great Britain’s Johanna Konta.

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Tsitsipas was playing against Opelka, the world number 39, for the first time in his career. The 22-year-old from Athens failed to convert on both of the two break points he had in the first set. However, Opelka was then forced to retire from the match due to a knee injury while holding a 6-5 lead in the opening set. As a result, Tsitsipas has now advanced to the semifinals without dropping a set throughout the tournament. This is the fifth time in his career that he has reached the semifinals of a Masters 1000 tournament. The Greek will now take on Canada’s Milos Raonic (world number 30) in the semifinals.

Raonic, a former world number three, beat Tsitsipas in straight sets earlier this year at the Australian Open. That was the only previous match played between the two. This semifinal will now take place on Friday, after Thursday’s matches have all been postponed due to a tournament decision that tennis would be “taking a stance against racial inequality and social injustice,” as many other sports have done as well.

On the women’s side, world number 21 Maria Sakkari was unable to follow up on her historic win over Serena Williams. The Greek was defeated 6-4 6-3 by Great Britain’s Johanna Konta (world number 15). Konta, a former world number four, has now defeated Sakkari in three of the four matches that she had played against the Greek.

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