Tsitsipas makes Madrid quarterfinals
Stefanos Tsitsipas has continued his run of good form, as he defeated Spain’s Fernando Verdasco 6-3 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals of the ATP Masters 1000 Madrid Open.
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The 20-year-old from Athens comfortably took the first set 6-3 over the experienced Spaniard, who is currently ranked 38 and has a career-high of seven in the world. In the second set, Tsitsipas went up 4-1 but Verdasco fought back to cut Tsitsipas’ lead to 4-3. Nevertheless, Tsitsipas was able to prevail 6-4 to win the match in straight sets and knock the Madrid native out of his hometown tournament. With this win, Tsitsipas advances to the quarterfinals of an ATP Masters 1000 event for just the second time in his career, with the first time being last August in Toronto where the Greek became the youngest player to ever defeat four top 10 players in a tournament, which he did en route to the final.
Seeded eighth here, Tsitsipas received a bye in the first round and defeated France’s Adrian Mannarino 6-2 7-5 in the second round, prior to beating Verdasco in the third round. Tsitsipas will now face defending champion and world number four Alexander Zverev of Germany in the quarterfinals. Their head-to-head record is 1-1, with Tsitsipas winning their last meeting (in Toronto), though this will be their first meeting on clay.
Tsitsipas has also teamed up with Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands in the doubles event here. After reaching the final the last time they played together (Miami), the Greek-Dutch duo have picked up where they left off, and have won three matches in straight sets to advance to the semifinals. They will now face the Dutch-Romanian pair of Rojer and Tecau.
The Greek has now won nine consecutive matches (six in singles and three in doubles), and has won a total of eight matches (five singles and three doubles) over the last seven days. Additionally, he now holds a 25-9 singles record in 2019, tied with Russia’s Daniil Medvedev for the most wins on tour this season.
